Augmentez la puissance de votre surveillance. Pandora FMS s’intègre aux principales plateformes et solutions cloud.
Helpdesk puissant et flexible pour les équipes d’assistance et de service à la clientèle, aligné sur les processus de la bibliothèque d’infrastructure des technologies de l’information (ITIL).
An extensive collection from detailed guides that break down complex topics to insightful whitepapers that offer a deep dive into the technology behind our software.
Expande el poder de tu monitorización. Pandora FMS es flexible y se integra con las principales plataformas y soluciones en la nube.
Potente y Flexible Helpdesk para equipos de soporte y atención al cliente, alineado con los procesos de Biblioteca de Infraestructura de Tecnologías de Información (ITIL).
We check out some of the best Pandora FMS news in 2020
Today we are here to make a small compilation of the new Pandora FMS features launched throughout this last year 2020, a general review of all the small advances that we incorporated and that will be useful when you are at the controls of our software.
Mainly we are going to deal with new features but also great improvements in quality of use that we added to Pandora FMS throughout 2020. To begin with, as features, for example, we added an integration with Google cloud, Inventory Alerts, PEN-based module templates…
And as improvements in existing features, we will discuss some of them like: dashboards, visual consoles and remote module wizard improvements and enhancements. We also added a Discovery task result view, improvements in alert correlation, dynamic services… among others.
USER EXPERIENCE
The first thing we are going to look at is the different improvements in user experience. Pandora FMS compatibility with Selenium has been updated. Right now we are using Selenium version 3 (before, we used version 2), and this allows you to carry out much more complex and detailed user experience monitoring. An interesting new thing about this Selenium version and this update is that right now you can do conditional monitoring, that is, if you don’t find something on the corresponding page, you can look for something else and execute another action. You may also use data on screen as process variables, something quite useful.
DASHBOARDS
These have been painstakingly improved and now look much better than they did. But they have not only been visually enhanced; the process to configure them has also changed. You no longer have a display view and a modifying view, but now you have a button to switch between read mode and edit mode. We also switched to a much more precise grid adjustment, which now makes it much faster to modify the elements. The option to see new widgets has also been revitalized with the search engine. This is a much better option than going through all the pages looking for what you want.
VISUAL CONSOLES
In a similar way to this dashboard improvement we just mentioned, visual consoles have also been improved. The same format has been followed for them, with a simple button that allows you to access the editing mode. The item view has also been modified. Now it is more dynamic and easier to use. Interesting functions have been added to the map view with new correlations between its maps.
One of these new functions is the element cache, a function that now seems indispensable to us. To give you an example, before, when you entered a dashboard, basically all the information was reset every time the page was refreshed, but now, with this cache, you can prevent elements that you do not want to be refreshed so often (for instance, an icon representing a module that only runs once a day) from doing it. This improves the performance of visual consoles substantially, which is always appreciated of course.
SMART SERVICES
We already know the “services” as they are when using Pandora FMS, and we know that they are hierarchical structures that show the status of a specific service with several elements, such as different servers that are part of a cluster, or even Pandora FMS database, server and console… Previously you had to configure these elements manually, configuring the modules, agents and the weight that each one has in the global structure. Now they have been endowed with a certain intelligence and dynamism that streamlines the process and frees you from all that work, since in the smart mode, among other things, weights are loaded automatically.
IMPROVEMENTS ON DISCOVERY
In Discovery, several features have been renewed and added. If we start with what was already there and it has simply been improved, the recognition tasks themselves should be highlighted. Several options have been revamped and added, from which Auto Discover Known Hardware and Review Results are the most significant.
Thanks to Auto Discover Known Hardware, when you launch a recognition task with SNMP enabled, you can automatically detect which device brand you are looking at. This is based on Private Enterprise Numbers, SNMP identifiers of each brand, for which you can generate module templates in the Module Templates section. One more way to automate remote device monitoring.
Review Results is another pretty cool feature. Has it ever happened to you that you prepared a recognition task, and without realizing it, you set a huge network? It is possible that the license you have does not support such a high number of devices and you get an error in the console. Well, with Review Results, one of the things we avoid is that kind of situation. Taking advantage of the fact that we applied this improvement, we also modified the way Pandora FMS console manages the information coming from recognition, so that you can choose which elements have to be generated and which elements must be discarded before they are even created in Pandora FMS.
Support for more applications has also been added to Discovery. For instance, DB2 from IBM, which works and is configured quite similarly to Oracle, with quite similar options: username, password, servers, port, database you want to access…
In the Cloud section, we added Google Cloud Platform. Now you have to manage the credentials at Google level. You must enable database encryption and then generate a service user in Google Cloud, which will allow you to download a JSON. With this JSON you will create the authentication account in Pandora FMS. Once this is done, go back to Discovery and use the new credentials to access Google. Choose the monitoring you want, and after waiting a little for it to be processed, it will generate some agents: the main Google Cloud agent, one for each zone where you have machines, and another agent for each virtual machine.
NEW WIZARDS
The new wizards for SNMP and WMI are similar to the ones YOU used before, but now they are much more customizable. Compared to the two boxes you had with the agent and module, now you have a much more complete wizard, in which you may indicate the name of the modules that are going to be generated, the description, the thresholds… you may even add monitoring filtering by interface name, using the search engine.
INVENTORY ALERTS
Inventory alerts have been added to configure alerts when something that should be in a machine is missing, when there is something that should not be there or simply when you find something that you want to be alerted about.
EVENT CORRELATION
Event alerts also improved in 2020. The event correlation editor interface was updated, so that now you may configure all conditions for an alert in the same section, without the need to generate separate conditions. Now you can also map events with log information in elasticsearch.
“Pen drive”, “memory stick”, for those less attentive: “VHS”… We have given many names to what we actually meant by USB. But you have to know that the term goes a little beyond that gadget of four or eight gigabytes that we use for so many things. In fact, there are several USB types, and today we will delve into getting to know them.
USB Types: What is a USB?
First we should make clear that, as many suspected but few dared to inquire, the acronym USB is derived from the corresponding words: Universal Serial Bus. USB is a connection protocol that allows us to connect several peripheral devices to an electronic device to achieve an exchange of data. It can also be useful to carry out some operations or charge the battery of our devices. It is, then, like a port that works as a connection socket between different devices.
The range of devices that we can interconnect to a computer thanks to USB is quite wide. We just have to think a bit so that they all come to our heads immediately. Mouses, keyboards, video and photo cameras, smartphones, USB memories, music players, webcams, speakers, printers, recorders, external hard drives, PDA… There are countless examples.
We owe this protocol to the fruitful 1990s, a wonderful decade for Britpop and for technology. It was seven large technology corporations (Intel, IBM, Northern Telecom, Compaq, Microsoft, NEC and Digital Equipment Corporation) who joined hands to reach an agreement on the peripheral connection standard for a computer. The idea was good for everyone, and although they started with a first model, USB 1.0, different from the current ones, everything was just a matter of evolution.
Standards
USB devices are classified into four types based on their data transfer speed: Low Speed (1.0), Full Speed (1.1), High Speed (2.0) and Super High Speed (3.0).
USB 1.0. It was the one that appeared in the mid-nineties. The maximum speed at which information could be transferred was 1.5 Mbps. Well, it could be used for connecting devices like the mouse and keyboard for example.
USB 1.1. The transfer rate increased to 12 Mbps.
USB 2.0. It is undoubtedly the most widespread standard and sends data at a speed of 480 Mbps, although its actual rate is 280 Mbps. In the cable you may find four lines: two for data transfer and two for power.
USB 3.0. We can consider it about ten times faster than 2.0. It reaches speeds of 4.8 Gbps. The best thing is that it is still compatible with the previous ones and on top of that, it includes five additional contacts. At present, it coexists with 2.0. in perfect harmony.
USB 3.1 It is the last of the standards. In fact it emerged just a few years ago. It reaches a data transfer speed of 10 Gbps. As an incentive, it comes with a new type of connector, connector C.
Types of connectors
Now we go to the shapes of USB, which is why we are more familiar with them.
Type A. It is the one that most users will recognize. That flattened rectangle in which we can see internal connections. The male connector is at the end of the cables, while the female is the port itself.
Type B. The ports and connectors belonging to this type are just as recognizable by users, but somewhat smaller and wider than those of type A. As a general rule, we can find them in devices such as printers.
Type C. The Type-C connector has appeared the same as USB 3.1 and the distinguishing feature is that it is reversible. That’s right, no matter which side you insert, it works both ways.
MiniUSB. You may find two different versions of this one, made by 5 or 8 pins. We can see them in cameras, external hard drives, music players and a few other trinkets.
MicroUSB. The microUSB is the smallest and thinnest of all. It is quite flat and was conceived to connect to our smartphones. With them we can transfer information and charge batteries, so we also know it very well.
Mistaking them with USB Memory
As we have seen, the concept of USB refers to the connection port. However, the term “USB” has also been extended to refer to pen drives. Pen drives are enabled with a memory that works as a place for storing and transporting data. It’s the rightful replacement for floppy disks and CDs (who doesn’t have one, for God’s sake?!), with different capacities ranging from 1GB to 1TB. Simply because the pen drive connects through USB, they have ended up calling it that. To shorten it. We are that practical and love saving that much.
Once you just got into the technological ins and outs, are you hungry for more? Would you like to go even further in the world of technology? What about spending a couple of minutes to find out what computingsystem monitoring is and why it is also very important?
Monitoring systems are responsible for supervising technology (hardware, networks and communications, operating systems or applications, for example) in order to analyze its performance, and to detect and alert about possible errors. And this leads us to Pandora FMS, that wonderful tool thanks to which this blog is possible.
Pandora FMS is a flexible monitoring system, capable of monitoring devices, infrastructures, applications, services and business processes.
Would you like to find out more about what Pandora FMS can offer you? If you have more than 100 devices to monitor, contact us through the following
form: https://pandorafms.com/contact/
Do not hesitate to send us your questions. Pandora FMS team will be happy to assist you!
Since the “Get it on!” (an instructive old spot on prophylactics) we have never been so aware of safety. It seems like an exaggeration, like a freakout attack I just suffered this morning, for abusing machine coffee, but no. Safety is more important than ever, especially if we refer to the topic of safe browsing on the Internet.
My pulse trembles, like you, like everyone else, when fearful of God and of my Catholic ancestors who are, I suppose in Heaven, I open the incognito window in my browser and I believe myself free and exonerated of all weight to set myself to scrutinize page x. For some reason incognito mode, to me, is like being invisible in a lingerie store or falling asleep at McDonalds’ ball playground and waking up when everyone is gone, leaving you free to play as much as you want. However, lately, I’ve been fraught with doubts, and, of course, the least thing you want when you are in “incognito mode” is to be nervous or hesitant about something. So I started wondering about safe browsing through the wasteland of the Internet. I needed to ask someone, someone who knew more than I did about safe browsing and possibilities beyond incognito mode.
So for that reason, we are going to talk today in our beloved and green blog, about safe Internet browsing. Not for anything else. Just to solve my doubts, and, incidentally, yours. And for this I have seen fit to request help from my dear colleagues at Pandora FMS, the technical guys, they know everything and today they are going to give us the secrets that they use for that, to immerse themselves in the network and not get scared and with several hives between their toes or on both sides of the groin, if you will allow me the metaphorical analogy.
What are the keys or tips for safe Internet browsing?
Manuel Montes, Q/A tester
For me, there are three essential aspects for safe browsing. Take note, I don’t see you taking note and it seems like you need it:
Common sense. Parents and teachers instill common sense in each one of us from childhood. Look for it.
Do not get into “weird” places, please. And you know when you have a “weird” place in front of you on the screen. Don’t go in!
I focus on pure navigation. If, for example, someone sends me a link directly, I check whether it is a really an HTTPS page, and if not, I look for it directly in Google, that, in certain cases, bans unsafe results. This is Google, watching over us and our money always. How can someone use another browser?
Mario Pulido, Head of systems
What you should do is use private browsing whenever possible so that later on you do not receive ads from your searches on any page you visit. Then you can also use all the pages with secure connections (https). Having a good antivirus with its browser extension activated to filter potentially dangerous websites is also very good. Not saving passwords in browsers with a logged-in session other than your account and separate personal and professional browser sessions. Having different passwords, or at least partially different, in each account you use, so that in the event that any of those accounts are hacked, they will not have access to the rest of the applications connected to it.
All that is what comes to mind and what I always follow by the book, for safe browsing.
Kevin Rojas, Project Consultant.
Let’s see, the first thing you have to do and that is not so difficult is to read well and look at the windows that open by themselves, orp pop-ups. Like when they do it in an abandoned house, they are often suspicious.
By all means, do not enter “suspicious” pages or as Manu said, “weird”, and less if the own navigator tells you to not enter. Please do what your navigator says, for the love of God.
I’ll give you an example, Dim:
One day you’re doing your things, “navigating through the Internet”, and you enter a page, and, suddenly, you see a window asking to “allow notifications”, what do you have to do? Well, always click NO, and if it is a page that forces you to click yes, it is not a reliable page, leave at once.
Read before accepting WHATEVER and check out very well the pages that open (by themselves or not).
Enrique Jesús Martín García, IT Project Consultant
The key and evident thing is common sense, like with anything. Try to avoid or at least be cautious with pages that request you to enter your data or grant storing permissions to files and similar things.
It is also VERY necessary to have an antivirus capable of blocking malicious and ominous pages, and access only safe pages (the padlock icon that appears in browsers), so that communication is encrypted.
Eduardo Corral, Project Technician
Dude, Dim, I tend to browse sites that I know. If I have to access unknown websites or those that I don’t trust a lot, I usually entrust myself to the antivirus. Sometimes I make the leap of faith, like in Assassin’s Creed, and I get into some non-recommended place, but I never give personal information and I usually try not to click on links that I don’t know for sure what they are. Those two points are key.
Pandora FMS launches Cloud installation and new download website.
Here at Pandora FMS we love news. If it were up to us we would wear new dresses and stilettos every week, we would open headquarters in an unknown tropical country and we would change styles, to other more daring and exotic, in our cocktail parties. Just to make our love for the avant-garde clear once and for all. But this time it is not about showing off a convertible car or cutting edge smartphone to impress those in the neighborhood, it is about something that interests us all much more: the possibility of installing Pandora FMS through Cloud. There you have it, cloud monitoring, no more and no less.
That is the good news, which here come announced by a choir of seraphic horns and the most common social networks: Pandora FMS can be installed on Cloud. Cloud monitoring for everyone! You may wonder: “but, what do I need?” Don’t worry, don’t get into despair, here we go:
-It requires an installed version of CentOS 7.x.
-RAM: 2GB (4GB recommended)
-Disk: 10GB of disk.
-Internet: Connection required
-Provider: Valid for all Cloud providers
And that’s it, nothing else, Cloud and execute the following command: curl -Ls https://pfms.me/deploy-pandora | sh
To this great news you just have to add that we also released a new download page and you already had enough excitement until Foo Fighters release a new album again. Possibility of Pandora FMS through cloud monitoring and new download page. We are definitely saving 2021. Perhaps we will compete with some variety of the Covid vaccine and with Tom Brady, now that it has been leaked how much he earns. But of course we are already among the most awaited and healing news of the year. And we have to say that this is only the beginning, we are not left alone in cloud monitoring, we have a few hectic months ahead, all full of innovation and surprises. But don’t worry, you can enjoy it little by little. You just have to be attentive to our blog and social networks.
Besides this, what do you think of the idea that Pandora FMS has a license that fully adapts to your needs? More flexible and adaptable than one of those memory foam mattresses from Ikea. You don’t believe it? It only takes to monitor our prices.
And as I say, if you want to keep up with all our news and you like IT, releases and, of course, monitoring, we are waiting for you in our blog and in our different social networks, from Linkedin to Twitter not forgetting Facebook. We even have a Youtube channel!, and with better storytellers than any other youtuber.
In this article we will focus on our on-premise platform, or cloud monitoring after having installed Pandora FMS console in Microsoft Azure. The installation will be made with an automated script that installs the Community version and with a second script, it allows to update Pandora FMS to its Enterprise edition (Corporative), leaving a 30-day test version (Trial).
Requirements
In order to use Pandora FMS, it is necessary to meet the following requirements:
Once Pandora FMS is installed in Azure, the functional diagram will be as follows:
Functional Outline
Before continuing, let’s see some screenshots of a Pandora FMS console running in Microsoft Azure:
Virtual Machine
Settings -> Networks
Virtual Machine Creation
For the script to work properly, it is important to use a supported virtual machine for this process. To do that, go to Microsoft Azure console (https://portal.azure.com) and select the following:
Azure Services -> Create Resource
In the Marketplace, look for CentOS 8.2 and select the following image:
Note: The script works using this image. In case of using another, if the repositories are set up differently, the installation may fail.
The rest of the process can be seen in detail in this guide.
Why monitor from Azure (Cloud)
Technology evolves over time and as a result of this evolution, our way of implementing changes. Many customers already have part of their infrastructure in the cloud. Today there are many hybrid on-premise (data center) + Cloud environments and many companies have their mail in SAAS (Software as a Service) format, as it is the case with Google Apps and Office 365.
Bearing this in mind, is Pandora FMS ready to run in the Cloud? The answer is simple. Yes, Pandora FMS is capable of being executed from the Cloud without any kind of difficulty. Software agents send information using TCP port 41121 (Tentacle). That way, all modules created in the software agents, whether Windows or Linux, will be reflected in your Pandora FMS implementation
Pandora FMS running in Azure
After this short introduction, let’s see Pandora FMS running directly in Azure. As you could see from the functional outline, at the beginning of the article, I am monitoring my smart home from Azure. Let’s see the tactical view:
We can see in this case that 52 agents are being monitored, where there are 591 modules, 588 of them in Ok status (Green), 2 in Failure (Red) and 1 in Alert (Yellow). The tactical view is very useful to quickly find out the health status of your platform.
Another very interesting view in Pandora FMS is the group view:
In this view we can group our agents to be able to organize in a simple way the technologies that are being monitored, the place where the agent is or any data that helps us quickly find the monitors that we are creating.
Useful features
Running any application from the Cloud brings new challenges, even if we have a hybrid infrastructure. Bearing in mind that it is a reality in many companies, we are going to focus on the advanced features that Pandora FMS has and that can help us work efficiently by having our solution running in Azure.
An extremely useful Pandora FMS feature is Discovery; one of the options is to perform a network sweep (scan) and sum all the ICMP, SNMP and WMI devices in a very easy way. This is very simple if the agents are on the same network as that of Pandora FMS server or if they have a network connection from another branch with a site-to-site tunnel for example. But all this does not happen having Pandora FMS in Azure; so what happens? Do we lose this feature?
The answer is very simple, we do not lose this feature, we can use it with a Satellite Server (only in Enterprise version).
It allows exploring and detecting new systems, monitoring remotely, executing remote plugins and allowing forwarding data files from the software agents to the main server, working as an agent proxy. It sends the monitoring data as XMLs through a Tentacle connection, so it does not require connection to the database.
Here is a link to the official documentation on Satellite Server and below some screenshots.
Agents created from a Satellite Server:
Firewall discovered by Satellite Server SNMP:
SNMP details:
It is important to bear in mind that the SNMP values seen in the graphs are generated automatically, only giving as values the IP of the device and the SNMP community that it must check.
Remote Configuration and Collections
Another feature available only in the Enterprise version and very useful for companies with many agents is remote configuration and collections, which allow us to solve two great challenges running Pandora FMS in Azure; the first is to manage the agents 100% from the WEB console and the second is to distribute agent plugins in a simple and efficient way that does not require any additional configuration to work in Azure.
Agent with remote configuration enabled:
Collection enabled for an agent:
Synced scripts on the agent in ITSanchez collection:
Pandora FMS is constantly evolving according to the evolution of technology itself. Bearing in mind that many companies use Office 365 and virtual machines running on Azure, is it possible to monitor them natively?
The answer is very simple: yes, it is possible, you can make a query using Office 365 APIs and obtain the status of the services that are part of the solution.
Office 365 status view
As for Azure virtual machines, from Discovery it is possible to configure the automatic discovery of your infrastructure running on Azure.
In this case, we see 2 virtual machines, one is running and the other is off, as well as a sum of the consumption in the southcentralus datacenter.
Here is a link to the official documentation on Azure monitoring.
Practical Case on Monitoring from Azure
To close this article I am going to share how I can see the health status of my smart home solution based on openHAB.
To run the solution, I am using two Raspberry PIs, where a key value is to know the working temperature of each computer.
Raspberry PI CPU Temperature View:
Dashboard in Grafana integrated into Pandora FMS:
To finish off, here you have a service view (Enterprise feature) that allows you to build a view of any application based on the business.
Conclusion
Pandora FMS is a tool that allows you to monitor the health of your infrastructure by running the solution from the Cloud, in this specific case from Microsoft Azure.
If you want to find out more about what Pandora FMS can offer you, click here.
Moreover, if you have to monitor more than 100 devices, you may also enjoy a FREE 30-day Pandora FMS Enterprise DEMO . Get it here .
Storage devices for networking, or NAS servers are in good health. And no wonder, since we have increasingly more data to save and more need to use them from different locations.
Traditionally, NAS servers have been considered a cheaper (and also more limited) alternative to other types of servers. However, NAS servers can also be used to carry out different tasks. But before we get into that, how about we find out more about what a NAS server is?
What is a NAS server?
A NAS server is a computer intended for data storage and use through a network.
Therefore, based on its definition, you may already conclude its main function. This type of device is designed to work like a large hard disk that, by being connected to a network, could be accessible from any location that enjoys connection to it. However, a NAS server, as we will see later, is much more than a hard drive.
NAS servers have grown in popularity at the rate that the use of applications and devices created to be used under the concept of “cloud” have done so. What happens is that, in this case, NAS servers would not be linked to the type of “cloud” managed by third parties (usually companies that offer this type of services), but would be a way to enjoy a kind of “Private cloud”, that is, storage that we could access from anywhere but that we would have under our control, locating said servers in our own company or, for more domestic use, in our own home.
That said, we can specify a little more what a NAS server is from the point of view of its components. In this sense, a NAS server usually has the usual components in any server, such as its own CPU, RAM memory and a series of hard drives depending on the storage needs, among others. In addition, it will have its own operating system and different applications, depending on the use you want to give it.
What is a NAS server usually for?
-Backup storage
One of the main applications of NAS servers is to store backups of files generated by different devices. It is, therefore, a way to centralize the backup copies of data that may be being created in different locations.
-Create your private cloud
Although most companies tend to turn to third-party cloud services, the option of maintaining a NAS server could also be interesting. With a NAS server, the computers that store the data remain under the physical control of the company and also not depend so much on the agility and state of service that a third party can provide.
-File sharing system
It is another of the common uses in companies. Instead of having the information spread over a multitude of computers, certain data is stored and made available to workers through NAS servers. In this line of thought, the options to establish permissions provided by the software being used will be important.
-Web server
A NAS server can perform different functions related to the web service. For example, it can support the main web server, work as a test server, or even perform web server functions on its own.
-VPN server
Another obvious use of a NAS server is to perform VPN functions. VPNs or Virtual Private Networks are virtualized networks in which we can work under special privacy conditions. They are usually widely used, for example in companies, to work from home as if we were doing it in the office itself.
-Multimedia storage
It is a more domestic use than the previous ones, but also very popular. Some people use a NAS server in order to store multimedia content that they will play on different devices, such as desktop or laptop computers, tablets, or televisions.
What to consider before buying a NAS server?
-Harware
In a NAS server, we will find components very similar to those we would find in another type of computer, so we will have to look at them as we would for other of our purchases. For example, both the CPU and RAM will be essential for you to work with agility. The specific choice will depend on the use you are going to give it. If you only want it as a storage device that you won’t access frequently, you won’t need a very powerful microprocessor or RAM; however, if you are going to use it to a wide extent, for example as a multimedia server, you will probably need more powerful components.
The section for storage deserves separate consideration. Here you should think carefully about the capacity you need, in order not to fall short in face of the future. Also, keep in mind that, although some NAS servers tend to incorporate hard drives, the most common thing will be that you have to purchase them separately.
-Software
No less important will be the software you have. Most often, each manufacturer has a specific operating system, so you should find out what this will be before purchasing the server.
Similarly, the ecosystem of applications available will depend on the equipment you purchase, so think carefully about the use or uses that you will want to give to your NAS server and what will be the different applications that you will be able to use on the server that you want to acquire.
And now, a little bit of monitoring
To finish off, don’t forget that one of the things you can (and in some cases certainly should) do with your NAS servers is monitor them.
Monitoring systems are responsible for monitoring IT systems (hardware, networks and communications, operating systems or applications, for example) in order to analyze their performance, and to detect and alert about possible errors.
And if we talk about monitoring, of course, we should talk about Pandora FMS. Pandora FMS is a flexible monitoring software, capable of monitoring devices, infrastructures, applications, services and business processes.
Would you like to find out more about what Pandora FMS can offer you? Find out clicking here .
If you have to monitor more than 100 devices, you can also enjoy a FREE 30-day Pandora FMS Enterprise TRIAL . Get it here .
Welcome to “The Top”, a program for grandfathers and children, for those who are idly hanging around and those who are natural achievers, for both nerds and popular quarterbacks. In short, this versatile and massive show is devoted to making the most unusual and genuine rankings. After trying, from 1 to 5, which Spice Girl we like best or which of the Epicurus Tetrapharmaceutical points is above the others, today we are moving on to the very expected: “Top network monitoring benefits”.
You have asked us earnestly for this classification, and although we dared not set their positions in order of importance, we are going to show you the points, within this top, that seem most important and relevant to us, and which you can certainly enjoy. If you can think of any more points, go ahead. Leave your opinion in the comments. A man with a monocle, a top hat and a mustache will review and judge them.
Top network monitoring benefits
1. Make better decisions as your system progresses and scales
It seems that we are talking about measuring, like when you go to those picturesque street markets, where you find all kinds of surprising fruits, vegetables, food and items. But no, we are talking about network monitoring. As we know, thanks to network monitoring, almost anything can be monitored, but what is not so clear to us, and that is the point that we want to highlight in our top, is that network monitoring will continue to work as our IT infrastructure evolves or new providers and technologies are added. Symbiosis and joint evolution. That is the fact.
A good monitoring will assume any element or plus that is added or changed in the network. It will offer a clearer visibility and control of the data, being able to make better decisions and stay more attached to the reality of our system.
2. Save time
It’s not that we are one of those fans with little “Carpe Diem” flags who don’t stop citing Virgilio on birthdays: “Be a fugit interea, fugit irreparabile tempus”, but we do consider that all time saved is time gained. Saving time, among these network monitoring benefits, means having time in your pockets that you can devote to other tasks that are even more rewarding than taking care of your company. And this is what good network monitoring does, save and give you time.
Yes, all this time you waste trying to gather information, urgently, when it turns out that, boom, there is a problem. Thanks to network monitoring you will always be aware of what you need. The system will warn you of slow or failing components, annoying interruptions, overloaded servers, and poor connections, as well as other different problems that usually arise and that thanks to network monitoring can be immediately issued or anticipated.
But, a network monitoring solution that allows you to monitor everything on a single dashboard would be magical. With a single glance and without the need to enter thousands of platforms to monitor problems. That really saves time. Virgil, in the Roman tomb where he is, would be proud.
3. Getting ahead of chaos
We do not want to be ominous either. But in this house we follow the laws of thermodynamics. And as we know from the statement of the second sentence, every system tends to chaos. Frozen particles are condemned to melt, the universe to expand, couples to break up… So, folks, you have to stay ahead of chaos, and there’s nothing better to stay ahead of chaos than fine-tuned network monitoring.
Network monitoring is always looking for features, comparing data, revealing trends, and of course like that it efficiently gets to the root of problems faster, even before they come out.
Good network monitoring makes visible all kinds of minor problems or near-misses, so that one can address and solve them long before they turn and mutate into catastrophic and bloody problems. It’s like making sure that that lizard is gaining weight gets eradicated it before it turns into Godzilla and atomizes the entire city.
This way of working in advance not only helps you be cautious but also to plan for tomorrow. So, for example, we can be prepared for future updates without fear. Long before our current infrastructure reaches a potential limit.
4. Saving money
If our mate Virgilio gave you moralities and Latin advice so that you treasure your time, we, Uncle Sam and the Wolf of Wall Street strongly encourage you to treasure your money as well, and this, as it has been common in this Top, can be achieved through good monitoring.
Managing your IT system can be a burden, and a good one. After all, if something goes wrong with the system, the money per minute you lose would make even the hardest and most fearless ones collapse. But thanks to the guardian angel, which is a good network monitoring system, you make money and rest. If it is well tuned and, that said, it is as worthwhile as Pandora FMS, you will reduce any possible downtime due to a problem, so it will be rare that you lose money.
As we know, good network monitoring provides alerts about problems in your IT infrastructure. You can also customize those alerts with the ease with which you program those of your smartphone to wake up. Alert thresholds can be based on the standards that the industry dictates at that time or on the parameters that you want or need. So end the stress, end a possible period of inactivity due to some kind of problem, and end the million-dollar loss of money for not solving that problem on time.
So far our “Top” this week. I hope it has been very helpful to you and supports you in your decision to get a good network monitoring system. Next week we will return with more crazy and fun tops like “Series from your childhood that could not be PG rated”.
To finish off this article about network monitoring benefits, remember Pandora FMS is a flexible all-in-one monitoring system, capable of monitoring devices, infrastructures, applications, services and business processes.
Would you like to find out more about what Pandora FMS can offer you? Find out clicking here .
If you have to monitor more than 100 devices, you can also enjoy a FREE 30-day Pandora FMS Enterprise TRIAL . Get it here .
«Beethoven was a good composer because he used new ideas combining them together with old ones. No one, not even Beethoven, could invent music from scratch. It’s the same with computing.»
Richard Matthew Stallman.
The previous sentence is attributed to a famous hacker – not cracker – from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (better known as MIT). As well as we have the word “present” with double meaning, “free” means both “with no cost” and “free” as in what enjoys freedom, so Dr. Stallman proposed the name free software to highlight the importance of freedom on economic matters. Yes, today I am talking about free software, which encompasses open source, and although they are different, in essence both retain the same spirit: being able to be our own owners (or, if seen in a funny way, “having the upper hand”).
Why is free software necessary?
“Free Software (CONATEL Venezuela, 2019)”
As you all know, this blog is about monitoring and our powerful tool Pandora FMS. I say ours because I’ve already become entangled in the user forum of pandorafms.org, where we write down and try to solve the doubts and/or problems of the community version.
However, most of the proprietary applications have such forums with employees paid – with our money – to assist us. That is fine and should continue to exist. The difference with free software (thinking selfishly) is that we can adapt it to our needs. In addition, we have the true possibility of directly proposing solutions to the original developers and even being recognized as authors, no matter how tiny our contribution is.
The latter comes to mind when I found out through the social network Twitter about the eight hundred and forty-third author of the famous curl software, a project that dates back to the last century and that to this day is still widely used in countless applications (Pandora FMS included). I was curious to find out what the contribution was and I was surprised: it was moving a comment to the right place. You may laugh at it, you are free to do so, that is what free software is for: freedom without debauchery. A good laugh brightens the day, encourages us and prepares us for hard tasks such as, for example, surpassing ourselves the contribution that we found funny.
Another thing to highlight is that the repository is hosted with the GitHub company, which, at the time this is written, is owned by Microsoft Corporation®, a leader in proprietary software, which I honestly consider an irony and leads us to the following point.
Git and free software
I have already talked about it in a brief story about Git, the software version control system most used today in all kinds of projects, both free and proprietary. GitHub is revolutionary because it allows you to host your repositories with free software for free, and you earn your income by hosting private repositories.
Good programmers know what to write. The best, what to rewrite (and reuse).
Eric Raymond in his book “The Cathedral and the Bazaar”
His philosophy is to make our lives as programmers easier. For example, the tutorial “Hello world” has been visited – and executed – by millions of people. It is well written in English and captures the purest essence of working with Git. Would you like to “build” your own online website to host your code? That is what GitLab is for, the closest competitor to GitHub but strongly focused on Steady Software Development.
Pandora FMS has been open source since the end of 2002, and uses everything available like the previous ones, in addition to Sourceforge, Word Press (these article that you are reading now) and a big compilation of utilities united by its own code: more than 700,000 lines, 102 contributors representing more than 212 years worth of programmer work at a cost equivalent to about 14 million US dollars. In addition, in the world of free software there are gigantic projects like Red Hat®, to name one that is listed on the US stock exchange.
12 tips for contributing to free software projects
Using free software is not more difficult, it requires matching knowledge. Those who made the effort to learn about proprietary software at the time should do so again today to learn about free software
Linus Torvalds, Author of Linux®
Organize or just promote face-to-face or online seminars dealing with free software.
Extend the tool to meet your needs and then share it as a new feature. Whether the community accepts or disregards it does not matter! Maybe your ego will be hurt, but you have already done your duty: you received something for “free”, you improved it (for your selfish benefit) and then you shared it. Period!
Most likely, you are not a programmer… but just by using free software, finding bugs and properly reporting them, you can be very helpful. If there are many users who report the same, surely it is some important bug that no one dared to report before… or some programmer already has the solution and is waiting to publish it just after reading your report.
If that was your case or if you are just happy with the free software developed, thank the team directly or tag them in the social network of your choice.
Would you like to further show your gratitude? Donate. Most of the projects accept donations and if not they explicitly indicate it (for example PuTTY suggests collaborating through mirror sites).
Also using social networks or forums devoted to that, if you are already an advanced user of a free software tool, you may help answer questions, clarify doubts or even publish tutorials on the matter. The golden rule remains the same: a lot of humility, a lot of patience, and a lot of respect when addressing others. “No one was born learned”
Not only with the general public we can help: if at the time of reading the project documentation, we find a spelling error or something completely illogical, reporting such mistakes in the documentation text can be very helpful. Even checking features that we did not know is useful, since if we find that it does not do or is not capable of doing what the documentation indicates, we can contribute as I described in the third point.
On the contrary, if the documentation is wonderfully written but it is not in your preferred language… help with the translations! I have translated articles not only from English -the most frequent-, but also from French or even sections in Chinese into Spanish. Always read the rules first before contributing: for example, the Python language is extremely rigorous in its syntax and indentation, and it is no less so for its translations!
If you’re feeling really brave you can fork the code; yes, I recommend that you read the project licenses in depth. In essence we must properly and without pettiness credit each and every one of the original authors and contributors, even if it requires a lot of disk space; in 2021 we have a good amount of hardware and memory for these purposes. Also, by using Git all of that is well recorded in the history when branching.
I am an older person, I never get tired of repeating it nor am I sorry to admit it: I feel good reading forums and articles to stay up to date. But I have noticed that because of social networks, and now more so with the COVID-19 pandemic, they publish video tutorials… Yes, the new generation needs “quick solutions and right at their fingertips’ reach” and the immediacy of information has never before been so close. Do you have good diction -and even some charisma- and are you an advanced user of some free software? It is relatively easy to record yourself talking about a specific topic and seven minutes is more than enough. You may even go further and set up your own PeerTube® server, which allows the first visitor to lend their computer to help broadcast your video while it enjoys it (note: this exposes your IP address to third parties and your firewall; if properly configured, it will warn you). There is even something called YouTube® that you might know.
I am a lousy artistic draftsman, but when it comes to vector graphics (SVG format) and assisted design programs (CAD) I consider myself good, I have even successfully passed courses. If web design or graphic design is your thing and you are talented at it, you can contribute to improve a free software project. What’s more, many times there are sponsoring companies that donate prize money for design contests. If you are really good, you may even reach an economic benefit. Who knows?
Many free software projects have test environments and need specialized hardware or equipment with specific characteristics (say, for example PowerPC processors). Donating or lending these devices, as long as they are in good condition and the project members accept and approve their use, is a good way to help. I beg you not to donate something that you are going to throw away, for that there are specialized charities.
Yes, there were twelve but I add one more: share this article, not only for Pandora FMS and its community version but also for the essence of my message. I will be personally very grateful for it.
Times change and so we do. If you are one of those who pay attention to their surroundings, who does not miss anything, you surely realized that our website has since a few days ago a mysterious new tab in its browsing menu that corresponds to the acronym “SaaS”.
This acronym refers to the term “Software as a Service” and refers to a software distribution mode in which the software and data are located on external servers to those of the user, which are accessed through the Internet.
Software as a Service is increasingly being demanded by companies of all sizes and that is why Pandora FMS wanted to keep up with this trend and offer this modality through three international partners that will offer our SaaS service in Asia, EMEA and South America. Would you like to get to know them a little better?
Meet our SaaS partners
-In Europe, the Middle East and Africa, our reference partner will be Uniway Technologies. With more than 20 years of experience, Uniway Technologies is a system integrator and reference service provider in the IT market. If you want to learn more about its uMonitor service, which integrates Pandora FMS, you can do so by clicking here.
-In South America, we joined hands with SITS Solutions. SITS Solutions has more than 15 years of experience in the IT sector, in which it has worked with the most prestigious manufacturers in the market proving its ability to advise, implement and launch a wide range of IT services. Do not miss the opportunity to also visit their website.
-For the Asia and Pacific Ocean market we count on Rworks. Rworks is a Tokyo-based company with extensive expertise in comprehensive managed services in critical environments. Our partner has a team of network technology experts, who know how to get the most out of the resources available. Here you can find their website.
Who is the SaaS version for?
Our SaaS version is aimed at businesses of any size, from SMEs to large companies. However, this Pandora FMS mode is an extraordinary opportunity for small or medium sized companies to easily and economically access a high-quality monitoring tool such as Pandora FMS.
Why choose Pandora FMS SaaS version?
Although our On Premise version is still available as usual, your business or organization may find more benefits in our SaaS version. Let us show you some of the advantages it will offer!
-SaaS monitoring provides unlimited scalability and instant accessfrom anywhere and from any browser or device. It also gets rid of worrying about maintaining storage, servers, backups, and software updates.
-It represents significant initial and maintenance cost savings by not having to make large investments in hardware and support. In addition, maintenance and updates will be faster and you will be able to have a constantly updated technological ecosystem without the need for qualified personnel.
-The SaaS service does not mean lower security. Rather, we have the best industry standards.
-In addition, the SaaS model allows pay-as-you-go. That means you’ll pay for what you use, so you can scale up or down your resources through a 5-agent pack system and depending on usage level.
If you want to find out more, visit our web page about SaaS or contact our sales team. They will be happy to answer all of your questions and, if you wish, help you with a totally free demo.
Don’t waste another second and get into the SaaS world!
Although it is not well known to the general public, virtualization technology is widely used in technical environments for being useful when carrying out multiple tasks and for the possibilities it offers for better resource usage.
Virtualization technology software is increasingly used by professionals in the sector, having already become an essential tool for the work of many of them. In this article, we are going to find out what virtualization is and we will discover some of the most common uses it is usually given. Let’s begin!
We know virtualization technology as the creation, through software, of the virtual version of an environment or technological resource. Let’s take a better look at this definition through an example.
A virtualization software can allow you to create several “virtual computers” (for example 3) within one. Thus, the software will create the “illusion” of generating 3 different computers, each one with its own operating system and its own resources.
Does this mean that with this software you will be able to multiply by 3 the capacity of your computer? Not really. The actual capacity will stay the same, but its functions will get divided into 3, allowing you to obtain multiple advantages, such as using different operating systems on the same computer.
How does virtualization technology work?
In order to carry out virtualization, the VMM (Virtual Machine Monitor), also called Hypervisor, generates a abstraction layer between the hardware and the operating system of the virtual machine, in such a way that it divides and manages the hardware resources between the number of virtual machines that you wish to use.
So, each of the virtual machines can be used to carry out different tasks, and even, as we said, different operating systems can be used. Another interesting question is that the attributions of virtual machines might be fixed (so that the resources devoted to each of them stay always the same) or they might be variable (so that the tool will distribute the resources among each of the virtual machines depending on the existing needs).
However, this example we are talking about only gives a glimpse of a small part of the many tasks that virtualization technology is used for today. Let us take a close look at a few of them.
5 examples of virtualization technology
For the last few years, and as “cloud” services have become more popular, virtualization has grown to become the widely used tool that it is today.
Today, virtualization technology is used to carry out multiple functions. Let’s see some of the most common ones.
Application virtualization
Widely used in recent years, hand in hand with the concept known as SaaS (Software as a Service). Application virtualization allows the user to use software that is not installed on their computer. Therefore, and on demand, the software provider’s server supplies the user with a package that saves the settings and the environment necessary to run the software, so that they can use it without having to carry out a complete download.
Desktop virtualization
It has also become a very popular application, widely used in work environments. Thanks to it, a virtual desktop that is not stored on the user’s computer, but on the servers of the service provider is created. So, each time a user is accessing their virtual desktop, the programs, applications, data, etc., will be hosted on said servers, which will offer multiple possibilities to the user, for example allowing the use of the desktop on different devices and from multiple locations.
Server virtualization
It is common for both companies and service providers. Server virtualization divides these into a series of virtual servers, which offers advantages such as cost savings or the automation of some tasks.
Thus, many companies use virtual servers instead of physical servers, generally for economic reasons, but also for other reasons such as higher service stability.
Storage virtualization
Although in other types of virtualization the common practice is to divide a physical resource into different virtual resources, this does not mean that virtualization always follows that direction. An example of the opposite is usually found in storage virtualization.
In this type of virtualization, it is common practice to centralize the information in a single hypervisor where you may access all the data, regardless of whether it is stored in different places and media, making management easier and improving availability and speed.
Network virtualization
This is the form of virtualization that uses the physical resources of a network in order to create different virtual networks that work independently and separately from each other.
Network virtualization has also been widely used for years, especially for compatibility and security reasons.
And so far we have seen what virtualization technology is and what some of the most frequent uses that it is usually given are. You have to bear in mind, in any case, that these are only some general outlines, since virtualization can be very heterogeneous and complex. And, of course, on many occasions it will make a lot of sense to monitor it, which leads us to Pandora FMS. Don’t you know what it is yet?
Pandora FMS is a flexible monitoring software, capable of monitoring devices, infrastructures, applications, services and business processes.
And, of course, one of the things that Pandora FMS is capable of monitoring are virtual environments. Do you want to find out more? Go here.
If you have to monitor more than 100 devices, you may also enjoy a FREE 30-day Pandora FMS Enterprise TRIAL.
Interview with Sancho Lerena about the current business changes
This year, no sector has been spared from the business changes caused by the Covid-19 pandemic, which have almost always been painful ones: millions of dollars in losses for theaters, which still do not know where or when they will premiere their films, a dying tourism sector, the world of hospitality ruined, parents who fear taking their children to school, bankrupted real estate companies… and a lot of glances towards heaven waiting for an answer, from the Most High above or from the extraterrestrial ship that will end us after this fateful 2020.
At this time it is best to turn around in search of the eyes of the experts to understand the business changes that are to come. And I am not referring to some religious and enlightened person on duty who proclaims the end of the world is coming from the corner of a square or some people who enjoy talking about conspiracies on TV as well as they may talk about ghosts or whatever. I mean real experts.
In our case, in the business and technology sector we have many experts to ask for an answer, but we must set some filters first, of course. We are not interested in any tongue-in-cheek brother-in-law with access to Wikipedia, and neither Bill Gates, he no longer picks up our calls. That is why we have chosen to have a small discussion with Sancho Lerena, CEO and founder of Ártica ST, the creator of the successful Pandora FMS monitoring software. Does he sound familiar?
When I decided to meet with Sancho, we both avoided the crowded tables at Starbucks for just the cliché and preferred to stop by the new location of the company. As many of you know, Artica ST moved its headquarters from crowded Gran Vía to the more accessible Pérez Iglesias Business Park. I was lucky enough to be able to visit both at the time and perhaps I would choose with this new one, in a more diaphanous location.
Once there, I greeted the charming employees, who always have nice words for me, and went to Sancho’s office. It would take him a little bit to arrive, but he did so with the demeanor and class that characterize him and offered me one of the two cups of steaming coffee he carried. That’s how working becomes nice! Like in an advertisement for nougat.
To start things smoothly and not go so straight to the point, we caught up on literature and science fiction, so when the conversation was in full swing we began with the questions that had really led me to meet him.
Could you tell us what your relationship with the business world is?
I feel more like an engineer than a businessman. Being an entrepreneur was the only way to do things “my way” and to be able to create a product, something that requires a long-term vision, incompatible with the reality in which we live. However, I have always been a free spirit and ending up setting up a company was something unavoidable in my life.
What do you think the state of the business sector is right now?
In major crises is where you have the opportunity to show what you are made of. Especially in our sector, companies that know how to innovate and adapt in an agile way have the best growth opportunity in decades. We are living in a moment of historical change.
What do you think are the essential elements for the business change we are experiencing?
I would summarize it in the concept “business resilience”, and that in my opinion should include the following aspects: higher focus on essential business lines, improving financing capacity in different ways, knowing how to integrate remote working in the organization, internationalization and R + D + i as a medium-term strategy.
Based on your knowledge, are the predictions favorable or unfavorable for 2021?
Absolutely optimistic! 2021 is going to be a historic year.
When I finished the talk, I had no choice but to smile. Not because of the comfort coat of the interview’s approach or because of the ease with which the interpellations and replies had followed one another, but rather because of the joy that comes from hearing an expert clarify everything in such a simple way, of course, finally, with optimistic overtones. You see, it is not that you have to spur your horses and go out to throw flares into the streets as if the team from your region won the league or something, no, we are not talking about that at all. However, you do get the warmth of that light finally outlined at the end of this black tunnel that we are all going through, on foot, swimming, in uncomfortable heels, or squatting and saddened.
When I left the new Pandora FMS facilities, although it was bitterly cold, I was walking at an accelerated pace, because I had been given strength. I did not think of Pandora FMS as a top product that is sold on the five continents for companies to manage their own technology and avoid crashes and failures in their systems. I thought of it as a new way to get out of all this viral mess going on where everyone from the fairgrounds to the automotive sector or the construction sector itself has taken the brunt. It may seem like a hackneyed political slogan but, together (it seems that) we can!
QWERTY layout; where does it come from and what does it mean?
SOS. Those three letters?, they represent almost at worldwide level a naval distress call… What does the QWERTY layout have to do with the keyboards we use every day? Spoiler Alert: Morse Code Is Involved!
Well, someone might say, “here is another boring article on the QWERTY layout”, but what they did not count on is that the “F” in our name means flexibility and we tend to see things as a whole; Similar to Pandora FMS Web Console dashboard.
Morse Alphabet
Or Morse code: in the 19th century they set out to give practical use to electricity and its electromagnetic wave, which travels almost at the speed of light. Mr. Samuel Morse first used it to send coded numbers and then it was extended to the rest of the English alphabet. I have already talked about trits and I think Morse code is based on it too, but without negative numbers: pause (zero), period (one) and dash (two).
Well, in French CQ, abbreviation for security, “sécurité” (sécu) instructed operators to stop broadcasting as there was an urgency to communicate something important (something similar to a network wide broadcast message).
A letter D was later added at the end standing for “Détresse” (aid); that meant “stop transmitting, distress call!” (I’m actually paraphrasing). This was literally spelled by radio telegraph, that is, they inserted a space between letter and letter. While this happened in 1904 in France almost academically, in Germany they proposed the use of SOS not spelled but as a symbol, without spaces: that way it stayed like three points, three dashes and three points, being shorter and less prone to misinterpretations. This must be represented with a line upon the three letters, to indicate symbol unit (SOS).
Then at the beginning of the twentieth century, the radiotelegraph was like the Internet at the beginning of this XXI century, and many standards were being proposed and implemented. Although CQD was proposed and approved, pragmatism was imposed with SOS!
Francisco Salvá Campillo
By Jordiferrer – Treball propi, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=20672461
This notable Catalan doctor stood out more as a physicist, since in 1796 he made a demonstration of the feasibility of telegraphy in Madrid, but he was too ahead of his time: he needed many cables to be able to represent each letter and symbol and it was complex to implement with the technology and human habits of that time.
Guglielmo Marconi, inventor of radiotelegraphy or wireless telegraphy, was able to see and recognize the courage and inventiveness of this Spanish scientist. By the way, look at the suit they advised to protect radio operators from alleged harmful radio waves. Any resemblance to the present is not pure coincidence, our human nature is always like that in the face of the unknown.
By Rolfe Hensingmuller (or Rolf Hensingmüller) – The Atlanta Constitution, page C6, Online, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=20517458
But, as I said at the beginning, also here simplicity prevailed, and it was easier to connect a positive and a negative wire with short and long pulses separated – sometimes not – by pauses, to send the information. The technological miracle had taken place, but now it remained to be seen if human beings were capable of learning the convoluted code. They hoped that with more technology something faster and more secure could be established (so as not to lose data, I mean).
The piano and the typewriter
Johannes Gutenberg had developed the printing press around the year 1450 and he made movable types, made of metal, to replace those made of wood, weaker and more tricky to manufacture. Another important issue was their number, about 150 different ones, and from there he began, through trial and error, to study which letters or characters were used most often.
With this technology, it was possible to revolutionize book manufacturing, something previously done manually and slowly and prone to transcription errors. In the century of telegraphy, typewriters were a great advance for any common person, as was the power of having a machine that emulates a printing press in their own home.
By the 1860s, telegraph companies were open to innovation – telecommunications were, and are, a flourishing business – and they were buying Hughes-Phelps printing telegraph even though they had piano-like keyboards, but with only 28 keys. They assigned from letter A to letter N at the top (“black keys”) and the rest at the bottom (“white keys”), but these were in reverse order (from right to left). Yes, I know what you are thinking: and numbers?
Tying up loose ends
That was the demand made by the first buyer of the typewriter created by Carlos Glidden, James Densmore, Samuel Willard Soulé and Christopher Latham Sholes, the latter known as the father of typewriters.
Who bought this prototype was Mr. Edward Payson Porter in 1868, head of his own telegraph school, Porter’s Telegraph College. Why did the telegraph and the typewriter cross paths? The messages needed to be transcribed in a single step and in a presentable way, because we all have different handwriting. From using computers so much, it sometimes takes me three seconds before I start writing with pencil and paper: what is not used, the brain forgets over time. If before my handwriting was ugly, now without practice, imagine the result… because at that time the issue was also that, legibility and uniformity.
In 1870, they delivered a second version of the typewriter, with 38 keys. It included the numbers two through nine, hyphen, comma, period, and the question mark. You may be wondering where the numbers one and zero were, and the same question I asked myself in 1981 when one of my maternal uncles “migrated” from mechanical to electric typewriters in his office and gave me one of the old typewriters: the letter “L” worked as number one as well and the same for letter “O” and zero.
At this time, the alphabetical order was broken, since there were four rows of keys:
The first row contained the numbers and the dash at the end.
The second row contained the vowels, with the period and question mark in the center and the comma at the end. As a rare thing, the letter “y” was also included.
The third and fourth ones kept the similarity with the “piano keyboard” of the first model, of course without the letters named above.
With this improvement working smoothly, Mr. Sholes and his sponsor and partner Densmore soon faced another much bigger stumbling block: They made a sales pitch to the American Telegraph Works represented by George Harrington, whose partner was Thomas Alva Edison himself, creator of the manufacture of the electric light bulb that we still use in our ovens and kitchens.
For Edison, the key layout was horrible and he saw no commercial possibility for that model. Considering that Edison tested more than 300 different materials for his electric light bulb and accumulated more than a thousand patented inventions throughout his life, this key layout problem was not little thing at all.
Mighty Mr. Money
Harrington also had another partner named Daniel Hutchins Craig and both, against Edison’s will, offered to make a good purchase for typewriters as long as the keyboard was improved: the QWERTY layout was about to be born.
They soon studied and relied on the trades of the common telegrapher, such as the frequent errors of confusing letters like “c” and “s” or the letter “z” with the pair of letters “s” and “e”, in addition to many other peculiarities. But in the end it was all well rewarded and as sales increased (they managed to capture the large Western Union Telegraph Company in Chicago as a customer) they soon realized that they were not able to manufacture enough units to satisfy the market.
In 1873, Sholes went to New York and made a deal with E. Remington & Sons, prosperous arms manufacturers: The model brought into production was QWE.TY and almost reaching the QWERTY layout! It had 43 keys and thus the Sholes & Glidden Type-Writer was born. At the end of that same year, Remington employees modified the keyboard again, replacing the dot by the letter “r” and the letter “y” by “u”, creating QWERTU.
They also added another key only used in the telegraph, the three vertical dots that indicated “paragraph break” and, surprisingly this was not included in the ASCII encoding in 1963 and it was not until 1993 that they added it to UNICODE for multilingual purposes.
Patent for QWERTY distribution
But the one who did not agree with this QWERTU distribution was Sholes himself, who moved the letter “y” between “t” and “u”. This was the birth certificate of the QWERTY distribution as he quickly went on to patent the new mechanical contraption in 1874. Although very determined for that moment, after time and shortly before he died, Sholes published a different distribution but that never became popular.
In 1875, the Remingtons bought the idea of capitalization with the same key for the same letter (it is better to be explicit with these things) and in 1878, the Remington Type-Writer No. 2 was born and this model brought with it almost the modern typewriter and keyboard. Here came small changes related to the subject of patents, the ways of typing, learning methods, in short, an enthusiastic community of users started contributing, sharing, founding companies and unifying ideas…
What the existence of the QWERTY distribution sealed, came with the meeting of five leading companies in typewriter manufacturing: Remington, Smith-Premier, Caligraph, DensmoreandYost (under the figure of Union Typewriter Company) and chose this layout as the norm. In 1910, the Teletype also adopted the QWERTY layout and, as we know, computer keyboards were direct heirs, if you will, of these keyboards for Télétype®.
By Flominator – Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=59338
Going back to Gutenberg, in 1885 the linotype was invented, “a kind of typewriter” for printers, and based on the letters most used in the English language, the ETAOIN SHRDLU distribution emerged. In 1930, the Dvorak distribution (patented in 1936) was introduced by August Dvorak and William Dealey, which is also governed by the principle of the most frequently used letters and for several languages (not only the English language exists).
Rest of the world
Most of the planet at least has a notion of the QWERTY layout, but many countries do not have it. In the case of the French language, they use the AZERTY distribution, in German it is QWERTZ, etc.
In Asian countries, which use ideograms instead of the alphabet, this issue becomes more difficult. In fact, they use QWERTY keyboards because the motherboards and their BIOSes are not yet made in 64 bits, although the processors are to be able to support a large amount of RAM and huge hard drives. There is still a long way to go in this regard, since it was partially with the introduction of the UEFI, but for each monitor in text mode to represent each UNICODE character (and not to mention the keyboards) is a task that will take some time to solve.
Before finishing, remember Pandora FMS is a flexible monitoring software, capable of monitoring devices, infrastructures, applications, services and business processes.
Would you like to learn more about what Pandora FMS can offer you? Find out clicking here .
If you have to monitor more than 100 devices, you can also enjoy a FREE 30-day Pandora FMS Enterprise TRIAL . Get it here .
What are MAC addresses, what are they for and how to find them?
At the shadow of the widespread IP addresses, MAC addresses say even more about our devices than its more popular sister.
As a kind of “identity document for network devices”, a MAC address informs us about “who is who” when connecting to a network. Of course, remember that the one called “MAC” has nothing to do with Macintosh computers. In fact, you can find it on devices of any brand.
In this article we will find out what the MAC address of a device is, what it is for and how to find yours in a very simple way.
What are MAC addresses?
MAC, or “Media Access Control” is the unique identifier that hardware manufacturers assign to the network card of each of the devices they make in order to be unambiguously identifiable when accessing any network (which of course includes the Internet).
MAC addresses are made up of 48 bits, represented by hexadecimal digits. Translated to a more understandable language, this means that the MAC addresses will consist of 12 digits (both letters and numbers) divided into 6 pairs usually separated by a colon (although they will not always have this separation). So, MAC addresses will have a structure like this one: 00: xx: 01: xy: x0: y1 (for example).
And now you may wonder… how is it possible for each number to be different? How does a software manufacturer know that the MAC number it is giving to a device has not already been used by another manufacturer? Well, it’s very simple: part of the MAC address, in fact, is made up of manufacturer identifiers. Particularly, the first 6 digits of the address tell you what the device manufacturer is, while the last 6 are those that the manufacturer assigns to that specific device.
What is the MAC address for?
As we said at the beginning of this article, the MAC address is something like the “identity document” of network cards that your devices use. It is the identifier that a device must “present” before accessing a network and through which it is going to be recognized, with what this entails. Thus, for example, a network administrator can allow or deny access to a network depending on the MAC of the device that wants to connect.
In theory, the MAC address is registered by the device manufacturer, so it would not be possible to modify it, but you know that in life almost nothing is impossible, so some people are capable of, at least, making the network members believe that the MAC address is a different one from the real one.
How can you find out the MAC address of a device?
As you can imagine, the way to access this information will depend on the operating system you are using. Let’s see how to do it in some of the most common ones.
-If you have Windows:
Press Windows + R keys (that will open Run).
Type cmd and press Enter. That way you will access the Command Prompt.
Type ipconfig /all.
If you look at the Physical Address you will find the MAC address of your computer.
-If you use Linux:
Access the system console
Once there, type iconfig.
Find the field HWaddr. That is the MAC address.
If you use macOS:
Go to System Preferences.
Click on Network and, within the left board, select the one you are connected to.
Click on the Advanced button, which you may find at the bottom of the window.
Select the Hardware tab. There you may find the MAC address.
-If you use Android:
Go to Configuration
Click on Wi-Fi and select the option Advanced settings
Nothing else. You will find the MAC address at the bottom of the screen.
-If you use iOS:
Go to Settings.
Click on General and once inside, choose the option Information.
Do you see the field Wi-Fi Address? There you have your MAC.
And now, a little bit of monitoring
Now that you have discovered what the MAC address is, what it is for, and even how to find out your computer’s address, how about taking a few minutes to explore the exciting world of system monitoring?
System monitoring is responsible for supervising technology (hardware, networks and communications, operating systems or applications, for example) in order to analyze its performance, and to detect and alert about possible errors. And that leads us to Pandora FMS, that wonderful tool thanks to which this blog is possible.
Pandora FMS is a flexible monitoring software, capable of monitoring devices, infrastructures, applications, services and business processes.
Would you like to find out more about what Pandora FMS can offer you? You’re on the right path! Find out clicking here.
If you have to monitor more than 100 devices, you may also enjoy a FREE 30-day Pandora FMS Enterprise TRIAL . Get it here .
And this is not a normal “Happy New Year”, the same as always, the flamboyant and festive one that we all shout on 1st January at family meals or, hopefully, already “merry” at the party organized by our town’s neighbor association. This is a different one. Because it is almost a gold medal, a master’s degree, a hug from the Pope, because, mate, yes, you have already achieved it, you have gone through the threshold of a year as fateful as 2020 to meet the promising and herbal 2021.
And no matter what comes in 2021 just today, day 1, it is still a blank canvas in which, optimists, we do not have to worry about anything, well, yes, about our future projects, because as usual, we will have to keep fighting with renewed strength, after 2020 made us have a hard time. Let’s get it!
On our side we already have our duties written down, our future projects for which we will strive and from which we will surely come out victorious in 2021.
FUTURE PANDORA FMS PROJECTS FOR 2021:
Creating our very own Tiktok account and with our choreographies draw the attention of viral consumers.
Meeting Rosalía at a top party, paying our respects and making her understand that it would be an honor to work on a project together.
Presenting a new edition of Ninja Warrior..
Winning the tennis championship that Rafa Nadal is the most greedy about, an Oscar with something that moves Steven Spielberg himself, and overtaking Elon Musk in the space race with our own intergalactic/transdimensional prototype that we have prepared in our garage.
Connecting Pandora FMS AI to the Pentagon computers and let it explore and feed on the mega data on a world scale until it becomes self-conscious and conquer the world.
And yes, that’s it!
Maybe they seem like very ambitious plans, but that’s how we are at Pandora FMS, optimistic and high-sounding. And if these plans end up failing, surely others, on a smaller scale and always related to monitoring, will be achieved. But, of course, always with your help and approval, because friends, this 2021 is all ours, and we are going to reach, together, the very top.
Systemd logs: how to monitor them with Pandora FMS
Systemd logs, without exemption, can be monitored in this proof of concept that we will see next. But what is systemd and how does it work?
I will tell you in advance that I do not want to create any controversies, I will keep my opinions on systemd. Back in 2014, when I formally devoted myself to studying free software, I received classes from instructors and professors who “grew up” using a very practical initialization process (initialization or just init) called sysvinit (also known as System V initialization, System VorSysV). That’s as far as Debian is concerned, which was the distribution we studied. I briefly describe what made sysvinit so unique.
Sysvinit
Sysvinit was an init program that, after the Linux kernel was loaded into memory and ready to work, was in charge of executing the rest of the processes (what all init does). It was directly inspired by Unix® System V and, not surprisingly, it was configured by means of files that had to have a correct order to execute everything necessary on a server. For example, you had to load network interfaces before loading any network services. Once everything was running, sysvinit ended, thus freeing up memory resources: sysvinit was a “goodbye”. Anything else you needed had to be executed by your direct order. It was a slow and very orderly process, but how many times do we reboot a GNU/Linux® server in a day, a week or a month? The “cost” of the start-up was later benefited in performance.
Another peculiarity was that the process was sequential: once a service or daemon reported that it was ready and running, it went on to the next one. This was the main criticism; Simple things like time synchronization with another server (Network Protocol Time) would stop the entire boot process if the network cable was disconnected or there was no internet connection, or if the time server was off or offline (or any other cause).
Apart from all this, you must also consider the cost of executing BASH scripts that call the same functions over and over again (cat,grep, etc.). It is easy for us to type in and program, but we did not convert it to machine language and that also causes the system to lag at startup.
For this reason, in Ubuntu 6.10 they developed an init called Upstart, but that is another story since another change was coming…
Systemd
In the GNU/Linux world, upper and lower case matter a lot, so systemd is written as it is (not to be misunderstood with System D, which is something else). It was born in 2009 mainly by Leonard Poettering (very active on Twitter), Kay Sievers (who worked for Novell), Harald Hoyer (who works for Red Hat) and Dhaval Giani (ex-IBM employee).
The Fedora 15 distribution was the first to use this new init: What did – what does – systemd do differently?In my own words and with the permission of engineers, graduates and computer scientists, the following.
In Unix®, there is this concept of socket to denote a point where an application connects with another; there are even web sockets for the same purpose, but located on different computers.
Well, what systemd does is creating first the sockets before the daemons. Yes, just like the joke that of “what came first, the chicken or the egg?” Once this is done, the daemons are launched the same way, one by one, and when a socket whose owner -daemon- has not started is queried by another daemon, then wait for it to be ready and go!
You can imagine then that systemd must be constantly checking that each daemon has finished loading into memory: if a daemon depends on several daemons, it is likely to be the last one in the server workload.
Recall that systemd’s job is to load each and every daemon,but what happens if any of them go wrong? Systemd should be able to finish it and restart it, and that’s when the problems appear: Did that daemon launch itself? Did you launch another instance? That’s a big problem for systemd because it is not aware of whether the daemon grew, developed and forked and is running perfectly fine.
The solution had been presented a year before and no, it had nothing to do with systemd: it was control groups (abbreviated as cgroups).
Systemd-components ( Image courtesy Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0 )
As you can see, cgroups, autofs and kdbus are deeply established in the Linux kernel. I really want to tell you about the whole graphic… I just make the exception that this image may not be updated to the architecture of the heart of * nix.
Returning to cgroups, this element was created to be able to host “containers”, as a way to control the resources (memory, processor usage, etc.) of the processes. This resulted, mainly, in Docker and its popular “orchestrators”: Kubernetes and Podman (more efficient virtual machines that run coordinately in clusters).
That way (and I have described it very broadly) systemd can absolutely control everything that happens under its mandate and, since power corrupts, the next step (the “dictatorial regime”) of systemd would be about to begin.
Alpha and omega
The strongest criticism of systemd is that it became the first and the last, the alpha and the omega in the world of the Linux kernel. You already know the saying “don’t put all your eggs in one basket”: systemd is the first that starts with the process identifier one (Process IDentifier 1 or PID 1) and from there, the rest of the processes, which eventually finish and at the end, systemd shuts down the computer.
During the entire time the computer is on, systemd is in charge of keeping all the services running and monitoring their performance: for all of them it already has its socket ready to start processes if it receives any request. For example, bluetooth is something that you will hardly use in a server. So the socket will be done but until you actually connect a device it won’t start any programs (despite this system, systemd detractors indicate that this also consumes some memory and CPU cycles).
For Pandora FMS, in its High Availability Cluster mode (Pandora FMS HA), systemd is extremely important: it is responsible for ensuring that pandora_ha service works constantly to monitor the server cluster (restarting Pandora FMS HA, if necessary).
Some of the major Linux distributions, apart from Fedora (and Red Hat), use systemd:
However, I must highlight (although here I always speak in past tense about sysvinit) that when writing this article, a Debian-based distribution still uses it (and also optionally openrc, another init): Devuan.
As incredible as it may seem, you may install a Devuan server offline on a 670 megabyte compact disc. If you want, you may download a graphical interface such as Xfce or MATE on both disks (there are more graphical interfaces available).
Units in systemd
Going into the general features of systemd, it uses the so-called units (units) to start and monitor the system:
service: Apart from taking care of all daemons, it also supports SysV scripting support, in the case of a program that uses that technology.
socket: Which I already talked about earlier.
device: For device management and control.
mount: This drive encapsulates a mounting point in the file system hierarchy. Systemd monitors all mounting points as they come and go, and can also be used to mount or dismount mounting points, for redundancy.
automount: This type of drive encapsulates an auto-mounting point in the file system hierarchy.
target: This type of drive is used for logical unit grouping; Instead of doing something by itself, it just refers to other units, so they can be controlled together.
snapshot: Similar to target unit, snapshots do nothing by themselves and their only purpose is to refer to other drives. They are useful for saving states or checkpoints for restoring in an emergency or at the user’s request.
I recommend reading the article devoted to demystifying systemd, published on the basis of the significant number of its opponents.
Systemd and Pandora FMS registers
If you ever want to contribute to the development of systemd code, you can start by reading the coding standards (programming writing style) on their official site on GitHub. There you will find delicious details such as that for indenting you must use eight spaces (although there are exceptions), or much more important things like what specific C-language functions you must use.
In your case, you may want to know the systemd logs and this is specified in the Binary Format of the Journal File (Journal File Format) of systemd. There it is explained, in depth, the whole process of logs of events, messages, errors, warnings, etc., not only for systemd but for everything that systemd executes.
Now, let’s get practical first of all, the systemd records are made in binary format and ready to be sent over the Internet to any other machine that you may have designated to collect them… that reminds us of syslog (specifically syslog-ng, the new generation of syslog that added log forwarding over the network). By default, systemd logs are saved in “/var/log/journal” and you may see their size with the command sudo journalctl –disk-usage.
Although you may activate the feature that records in higher detail, as well as sets limits on disk space consumption or saving time, etc., for those who monitor with Pandora FMS, you may use of log monitoring.
Starting with version 7.0 NG 712, Pandora FMS incorporates ElasticSearch to store log information, and starting with Pandora FMS 7.0 NG update 717, a new component appears: Pandora FMS SyslogServer. The main advantage of Pandora FMS SyslogServer consists in complementing log unification. This component allows Pandora FMS to analyze the syslog of the machine where it is located, analyzing its content and storing the references in your ElasticSearch server.
Having this powerful monitoring tool, you may configure syslog-ng to read the systemd logs directly. Or even better, configure journald.conf to forward messages to syslog-ng. I will tell you in advance that there are many additional details, but this article does not intend to be a manual or wiki: in the documentation of both programs you may find precise instructions.
Setting systemd logs to syslog in journald conf
Systemd logs and containerized virtualization
Additionally, you may monitor containers, and/or Docker (one of them or both at the same time), because generally in these virtual machines they do not add systemd in order to save memory and processor cycles. Again you may read the specific details in this link for Docker and here for systemd-machined.service. Always remember that you have Pandora FMS SyslogServer and ElasticSearch to be able to handle the huge amount of data and/or information that you will receive, and be aware of the network traffic that will also increase.
Systemd logs and Pandora FMS Software Agents
To finish off, you may check systemd logs with the command journalctl and filter information with BASH and its GNU commands. Let’s say you want to see the latest startups and shutdowns of your computer. sudo journalctl –list-boots
You may filter by date with the parameters –since not only using a date, but also using commands in quotation marks: if you want to see yesterday’s logs you should use –since «yesterday»; or select by units with –unit service, for example.
Pandora FMS software agents are small installed programs with minimal impact on your computers that retrieve metrics. You may also see the respective systemd logs with the command systemd analyze blame: systemd-analyze blame
With not even a third of a second, a Pandora FMS software agent (as you may see in the example above) can retrieve important data. With journalctl you may export your queries in JSON format in order to be parsed by other software and quickly retrieve precise data and fields (this is known as a program parser) to respond to a plugin that we found developed for Pandora FMS software agents.
In this excellent article, there are examples on how to use BASH and develop modules for Pandora FMS software agents to be executed in a small Raspberry model board computer. I hope you like it.
Also the popular Python programming language has libraries you may call with:
from systemd import journal
And thus, directly access systemd logs without using journalctl and deliver the results to Pandora FMS Software Agent.
Before saying goodbye, remember that you may know better what Pandora FMS can offer you by clicking here.
If you have to monitor more than 100 devices, you can also enjoy a FREE 30-day Pandora FMS Enterprise TRIAL . Get it here .
Do not hesitate to send us your questions. Pandora FMS team will be happy to help you!
5 traditional profession and their equivalent tech professions
Switching careers is not an easy task. Sometimes people struggle to switch professions mid-career because they don’t have the right support or they just don’t want to start over. Imagine dedicating years to a particular career and then realizing it’s not right for you. It might be very frustrating to know you have to start over.
However, it doesn’t necessarily have to be that way. There are equivalent tech professions for your current career; you just have to do some research. Here we show you some equivalent tech professions for career changers.
Finance → Data Analyst
Financial advisors deal with statistical analysis during their daily work routine. It’s their job to forecast financial situations and analyze the economic landscape. Data scientists have a similar role to financial advisors, so it could be an alternative tech profession to take into account. They need to analyze data to come up with meaningful insights so companies can make better business decisions.
If you’d like to start a career in tech and you have a financial education background, you can try leveling up your skills by taking a data science bootcamp.
Journalist → Digital Marketer
Journalists are content creators by nature; they have the creativity and eye for good stories. Therefore, a good equivalent to this career is digital marketing. In the digital marketing industry, they’ll have to optimize content by using SEO techniques. Besides, they’ll need to understand how social media algorithms work. This way digital marketers can create viral content and reach business goals.
The fact that you’ve worked with high-quality content creation with news and press releases gives you an advantage over others. Therefore, this could be a good tech profession if you’re trying to break into tech without having to start over.
Graphic Designer → Web Designer
Graphic designers have special skills for aesthetic design and understand how to use design tech tools like Photoshop or Illustrator. That’s why web design is a good equivalent for graphic designers who want to start a career in tech without having to build a career from scratch.
Web designers work with the visual aspect of websites. This means that they design layouts, scroll bars, icons, and anything that makes the website more visually appealing. If you’re a graphic designer and you’d like to become a web designer, you’ll need to learn how to code with different programming languages.
Sales Manager → Project Manager
Sales managers require management skills, so project management could be the best tech job equivalent to this profession. Project managers need to have leadership skills and know how to optimize time. These skills are very similar to the ones sales managers have.
If you’d like to start a career in tech but you don’t want to spend years pursuing a bachelor’s degree in computer science, you can opt for a career in project management. Project managers usually have a high salary depending on the company they work on. Besides, since you have a sales manager experience, this will add more value to your job proposal.
Engineer → Software Developer
Engineers are problem-solvers by nature. They find new solutions to the most difficult problems. This means that engineers think with logic and mathematical skills. Therefore, software engineering is the right match if they’re trying to break into tech.
As a software developer you’ll need to work with different programming languages such as JavaScript or Ruby. Software development involves back end development and front end development. While back end is related to servers and the skeleton of the software, front end development requires design skills, since it’s the visual aspect of the app.
Conclusion
Starting a new career is not easy. Therefore, most career changers usually prefer to find an equivalent to their current career. If you’re worried about the fact that you come from a very different background, just think that your diverse background adds value to your career. Instead of being a negative factor, it can be beneficial for your career.
About Pandora FMS
Pandora FMS is a flexible monitoring system, capable of monitoring devices, infrastructures, applications, services and business processes.
Would you like to find out more about what Pandora FMS can offer you? Find out by going here .
If you have to monitor more than 100 devices you can also enjoy a FREE 30-day Pandora FMS Enterprise DEMO . Get it here .
Do not hesitate to send us your questions. Pandora FMS team will be happy to help you!
In this article, we will focus on Proxmox VE monitoring, a virtualization system, for which you will use Pandora FMS agent plugin.
What is Proxmox VE?
Before delving into Proxmox VE monitoring, we should define it. Proxmox VE is a virtualization system with an open source license that allows virtualizing computers with two technologies: KVM (Traditional Virtualization) and lxc (Containers). It can be installed on Debian 10 without major difficulties; All Proxmox VE management is done from your browser.
Proxmox VE Features
Based on Debian: Proxmox VE is based on Debian GNU/Linux and uses a custom Linux kernel. The Proxmox VE source code is free.
KVM Virtualization: Virtual machines in Proxmox use KVM. KVM is the industry leading Linux virtualization technology for full virtualization. It is a kernel module fused with the main Linux kernel and runs with near-native performance on all x86 hardware with virtualization support, be it Intel VT-x or AMD-V.
Container-based Virtualization (LXC): Container-based virtualization technology is a lightweight alternative to full machine virtualization, because it offers using fewer hardware resources for Linux virtualization.
WEB Management: It has all management tasks with the integrated graphical user interface (GUI); there’s no need to install a separate management tool.
Backups : Backups are a basic requirement for any sensitive IT environment. The Proxmox VE platform provides a fully integrated solution, using the capacities of each storage and each type of virtualized operating system.
Before starting, let’s see the view where the virtual machines and containers that you are going to monitor through your plugin are.
Virtual Machines (VMs) Containers (lxc)
Proxmox allows you to backup your virtual machines (vms) and containers (lxc). Pandora FMS plugin has the ability to save the status of the last backup, saving the detail of the task as well as the result.
Backup Task Details
By installing Pandora FMS agent you will have the operating system metrics. In order to further monitor the virtualization solution we are going to use a plugin from Pandora FMS library available at: https://pandorafms.com/library/monitoreo-proxmox-ve/
Agent Plugin
Bearing in mind the large amount of data that needs to be monitored on this platform, the wisest decision is to create a Pandora FMS Agent plugin. The name is very nice, but let’s get down to it… what is it about?
The agent plugin is executed by Pandora FMS Software Agent, so it must have special features:
Each plugin execution can return one or more modules with their corresponding values. The output must be in XML format, as explained later
You will be able to access both local machine resources and remote machine resources.
It is possible to use any type of programming language supported by the operating system where Pandora FMS software agent is installed.
All dependencies or software necessary to run the plugin must be available or installed on the same machine that runs Pandora FMS agent
Agent plugins can perform kind of a recognition task, as the plugin can return multiple modules in one run and the number can change between different runs.
The great advantage of creating an agent plugin is that they are dynamic and any object created in Proxbox will be reflected in Pandora FMS console.
We will not go into much detail, they are available in the aforementioned guides. To have Proxmox VE extended information, 3 lines must be added to the file /etc/pandorafms/pandora_agent.conf
That way, the status of your virtual machines (VMs) and containers will be in Pandora FMS console, as you may see in the following images:
Proxmox VE Agent
System Monitors (the disks are in the box)
The monitors in the previous image are part of Pandora FMS agent defaults for the operating system.
Proxmox VE Plugin Monitors
The plugin groups the monitors in Application to be able to find them easily:
Container status view (lxc)
Virtual machine view (kvm)
Something important to keep in mind when using an agent plugin is that if a new virtual machine, container or backup is created, they will appear dynamically on Pandora FMS server.
In order to find out the status of the Proxmox backups, you must know the path (folder) where the backups are stored and add the following line to the file /etc/pandorafms/pandora_agent.conf
You will get 2 monitors for each Proxmox backup; the first is the status of the last backup (1 if it is successful, 0 if it fails). Proxmox VE has a log file for each backup job and the summary is on its last line. For this reason, the plugin saves this last line on a Pandora FMS monitor to be able to know the details in case of a failure or analyze how your backups are working from Pandora FMS console.
View of a backup job with its description
Pandora FMS is a tool with great flexibility to adjust it to your needs. In order to monitor this virtualization tool, the agent plugin feature is the most suitable. You may see more details in the official guide.
To finish off this article on Proxmox VE monitoring, remember Pandora FMS is a flexible all-in-one monitoring system, capable of monitoring devices, infrastructures, applications, services and business processes.
Would you like to find out more about what Pandora FMS can offer you? Find out clicking here .
If you have to monitor more than 100 devices, you can also enjoy a FREE 30-day Pandora FMS Enterprise TRIAL . Get it here .
Benefits and Drawbacks of SaaS and what it is like compared to on-premise software
SaaS has rapidly become the go-to software and computing solution for businesses and industries across the world. While it’s costly to develop and deploy servers and infrastructure for your business out of pocket, you will be glad to hear that software-as-a-service seems to be a more affordable and more scalable solution for just about everyone. What are the benefits and drawbacks of SaaS?
Although SaaS offers a lot of advantages over other kinds of cloud software, on-premises software and systems are still favored by some companies. Let’s take a look at the two computing strategies and try to determine which is better overall.
SaaS vs On-Premises: Setup Considerations and Functionality
Let’s get some basic definitions out of the way. On-premises (or on-prem/on-site) software or systems can be accessed and modified directly from computers or servers that are owned and operated by a business, and which are also located on the business’s premises.
Meanwhile, SaaS-based systems rely on off-site computing centers for clients. Users can connect remotely to a SaaS center, which is how they are able to access different programs and services they can use for their business or security needs.
There are obvious differences right off the bat. In general, companies often have on-premises systems or networks installed over time, especially if they started small. Furthermore, building an on-premises system or security network is often more ideal when your business has evolved or grown since you can gradually make sure all the computers in the network run with the same programs or use the same, in-house software.
However, on-premises systems and networks are usually quite expensive in terms of investment capital, especially when you consider installation and deployment. Ongoing costs and maintenance are also something to consider.
On the flip side, SaaS systems and security can be deployed securely, remotely, and much more quickly. Since all the cloud computing takes place on servers located away from a business, it’s often more flexible and can more easily scale with a growing business without requiring the purchasing of additional infrastructure on the part of the business in question.
Furthermore, SaaS systems are often more affordable than purchasing and deploying infrastructure or systems outright, especially for newer companies. That’s why many companies are shifting to SaaS infrastructure and connectivity over time.
The Benefits of SaaS
For SaaS, companies benefit from:
More computing flexibility. Computing resources can be allocated or withdrawn as necessary, meaning scaling up computing power requirements due to a sudden business boom is a lot easier. This is because SaaS-based cloud systems are designed to be installed and accessed remotely, so you do not need to worry about whether you have enough hard drive space or if your computer has enough power.
Easier remote access. SaaS companies or operators are responsible for the security and rigor of a network’s defenses. Thus, employees of a client company can easily access programs or databases from anywhere they have access to the Internet. This is excellent for more mobile companies or companies with mobile workforces.
Cheaper operating costs. Most SaaS agreements have companies pay periodic fees for access to the cloud computing servers and software, which are cheaper than buying servers/software and installing them yourself.
Costs for backup and data recovery are also cheaper. As your company gets larger and you take on more customers and their sensitive information, you’ll be able to store that information on cloud servers with sophisticated backup and recovery tech built-in from the start.
The Benefits of On-Premises Systems
On-premises systems and networks have their own advantages that make them attractive choices. These include:
Total control and customization. Companies that spend the time and money to develop and deploy their own digital infrastructure will enjoy complete customization over that infrastructure. All the server space and computing power you purchase will be used by you alone, not shared with others.
Easier access to hardware for upgrades/repairs. Though risk is severely educated thanks to the shared nature of networks, it’s not foolproof. With on-premises systems, you have access to all your servers and infrastructure and can repair damage/glitches or make hardware upgrades quickly.
In-house software deployment. For some industries, in-house software or solutions are required to provide customers and clients with the services they need. With on-premises systems, you’ll be able to deploy this software without running through legal red tape, and not have to rely on one-size-fits-all software
Which is More Secure: SaaS or On-Premises?
But arguably the biggest question to consider when deciding between SaaS systems or on-premises systems is security, especially given the risky digital environment of today. The fact is that cybercriminals are becoming more sophisticated and difficult to detect with each passing year.
Companies must increasingly enhance their security and defensive techniques in their SaaS software to both avoid intrusions that can harm themselves and to protect sensitive customer data or prevent it from being leaked onto the wider web.
On-Premises Security
As mentioned, on-premises systems allow you total control over the assets in question. An on-site IT team can control any programs that are installed and determine who has access to databases at any given time. Plus, a rapid response to a potential security threat (say, an employee’s password being left on a coffee shop table) can be implemented immediately across the board.
With an on-premises system, you’ll also be able to thoroughly monitor your servers and other infrastructure 24/7. The limit, of course, is money – it takes cash to hire a security team and keep constant vigilance over your servers and infrastructure. Larger companies, therefore, may be able to provide better on-premises security than smaller businesses.
SaaS Security
On the other hand, SaaS systems offer remote security, which is also tied to all the client servers in a network. Again, this helps to distribute threats across the network, and the nature of the cloud allows for rapid deployment of security measures or shutdowns and backups at the first sign of a threat.
That being said, there are measures that can help make your SaaS systems even more secure than they already are. First and foremost, it’s worth investing in enterprise-level virtual private networks (VPNs), which give secure remote access to the internal network that houses the SaaS tools for your company. This will also help ensure that only fully authorized users are able to access the network, and any cyber criminals outside of the network will have a
Furthermore, cloud or SaaS systems can deploy security upgrades that come out for the entire industry a little more quickly than a company can do the same for their on-premises servers.
After considering the benefits and drawbacks of SaaS, you may wonder which is better? It ultimately depends on your philosophy and budget. SaaS security is almost always cheaper, but it doesn’t afford the same peace of mind and total control that on-premises systems do. Protecting your on-premises systems with top-tier monitoring software can arguably offer you better overall security compared to leaving it in the hands of remote workers thousands of miles away.
Conclusion
In the end, despite the benefits and drawbacks of SaaS and on-premises servers both have a place in today’s modern business and network security environments, and both will likely continue to be favored by certain types of businesses over others.
For now, SaaS systems and security are often a better choice for companies low on IT professionals and money. On-premises servers might be a better choice if you aren’t concerned with scalability and have the budget and professionals to spare to take matters into your own, capable hands.
We live in an uncertain world and monitoring should try to make sure that whatever happens we will always be informed. Therefore, security is the basis of everything in monitoring and for us it has always been one of the pillars of our strategy as a product.
Security is not a technology, it is a way of thinking and acting, we could even say that it is an attitude.
For years we have attended international fairs, events where computer security is offered as specific products. Many people may think that by buying products you reinforce your company’s security, but no, that is only a small part. Security is about changing the way we run the organization, from how we share information to how we use systems.
Pandora FMS has always been aware of this, and it can be seen in our security architecture guide our guide to GDPR compliance which is also valid for regulations such as PCI/DSS and of course, because as a company we are ISO 27001 certified.
ISO 27001 certification provides us with important backup towards our national and international clients, many of whom request information from us about our business continuity plans, the security of our development and implementation processes, what protection measures of the privacy of the information we have and how we control the information available to our suppliers.
We understand that for them it is as important or even more than for us and having a certification that strongly supports us is something to be proud of. Many of our clients are pharmaceutical companies, financial institutions – some over a century old – and government entities. Due to confidentiality contracts we cannot mention their names, but large and small, to a greater or lesser extent, everyone is concerned about aspects related to information security.
Today we can proudly say that not only do we also care about it, but that we have proven our commitment.
ISO/IEC 27001 is a standard for information security (Information technology – Security techniques – Information security management systems – Requirements) approved and published as an international standard in October 2005 by International Organization for Standardization and by the International Electrotechnical Commission.
It specifies the necessary requirements to set, implement, maintain and improve an information security management system (ISMS) according to what is known as the “Cycle of Deming “: PDCA – acronym for Plan, Do, Check, Act (Plan, Do, Check, Act). It is consistent with the best practices described in ISO / IEC 27002 , formerly known as ISO / IEC 17799, with origins in the BS 7799-2: 2002 standard, developed by the British standards body, the British Standards Institution (BSI).
How to boost your team’s productivity? Find it out
IT teams are essential for many companies to work. And, although due to the nature of their work they have certain features, you should not forget that, after all, they are human teams, so they have similar characteristics to those of any other group.
The sensible thing, then, is to remember that if you want your IT team to work to the fullest, you must be able to optimize several of the aspects involved in its performance, both the characteristics of the IT field and more general ones. Would you like to know how to boost your team’s productivity? How about seeing some tips to achieve it?
Some tips on how to boost your team’s productivity
Define the team’s objectives clearly
It is a general tip, but essential. No group can work aimlessly, and the IT team is no exception.
Both at group level as well as individual level, your employees will need you to define their objectives clearly. And even more: don’t forget to outline them at different time frames: short, medium and long term. That will make things much easier.
Improve internal communication
Good internal communication is essential in order to improve coordination and make information flow. In addition, when it comes to the internal communication of the IT team, there is a double challenge.
On the one hand, one way on how to boost your team’s pproductivity is by sharing ideas and solutions.
On the other hand, good communication between the IT department and the rest of the company will allow their work to get highly aligned with the actual needs, so that their work activities will have more value.
In addition, nowadays there are no excuses for not using the multiple tools that we have at our disposal to improve internal communication. From classics such as meetings or emails to more specific means, such as internal chats or helpdesk systems, there are many solutions that can make your task easier.
Automate processes
No one better than you knows when it can and cannot be done. Automation allows you to devote resources to other tasks, which is another way of how to boost your team’s productivity. Remember that automation possibilities are increasing and are among the usual offers of many cloud service providers, so you will have many different options to choose from.
Feedback is important
Horizontal communication is important, but you can’t forget vertical.
Your employees must know not only the main lines of their work, but also if what they are doing corresponds to what is expected from them. Have they done well? Don’t get shy, say it. Good words are motivating and direct a job well done. Were there any mistakes? Say it too. Carefully and politely, it is not about humiliating or intimidating, but about correcting bad practices so that they do not happen again. Feedback guides and is also a good way to exchange impressions, so don’t forget about it.
Work flexibility
Today, work flexibility options are pretty diverse. From flexible hours to remote working, there are multiple solutions that are ways how to boost your team’s productivity and make them value their job even more.
In addition, due to the particularities of working in IT teams, it is usually quite feasible to introduce these types of options, so give it a thought.
Set incentives
We are all human beings, right? And human beings like to see their work rewarded in tangible ways (good words are positive and necessary, but they do not feed you). So don’t forget to set specific incentives that motivate your team and reward them for a well done job.
Extra pay, salary increases, bonuses, days off, paid vacations… There are many ways to do it. You can link them to goals achieved or productivity increases, for example. Think carefully about how to do it and it will be a win-win situation.
Think about professional development
The IT sector is highly competitive, there are multiple job offers and people who work in the sector often have options to change companies if their expectations for professional growth are not met.
That is why it is so important that you make development possible within your company. Both at job and remuneration levels as well as task level, a job that enables professional development will be highly valued and will help productivity increase.
Give your team the right tools
Because there are tools and tools. Working with the wrong instruments can cause frustration and loss of performance for any professional, and people on the IT team will be no exception.
Also, in the IT market… like there’s no different profits! Fortunately, you are in a sector where there is a wide variety of tools that will make your team’s work easier and will make it more productive for you.
For example, since this is the main subject of this blog, we can talk about monitoring tools, and of course Pandora FMS.
If you still don’t know Pandora FMS, you should do it, because it is a flexible monitoring software, capable of monitoring devices, infrastructures, applications, services and business processes.
Would you like to find out more about what Pandora FMS can offer you? Find out by going here .
If you have to monitor more than 100 devices, you can also enjoy a FREE 30-day Pandora FMS Enterprise DEMO . Get it here .
Do not hesitate to send us your questions. Pandora FMS team will be happy to help you!
There is basic knowledge, like freshman year computing, which we often take for granted but that is always a pleasure to remember.
From how to take a screenshot to where to find stickers thick enough to blind a laptop’s webcam, to recommendations to make your Facebook password crafted enough not to be hacked again. As I say, they may seem like things that sound trivial at first, but quoting my drunken, and probably bald, favorited Greek, Socrates: “There is only one good: knowledge. There is only one evil: ignorance”.
So it won’t hurt to go back to our beginnings and find out, for example, what is RAM memory?.
We have chosen one of our most capable and nice colleagues at Pandora FMS, Rafael Ameijeiras, Project Manager, who will answer the question: what is RAM memory?, as well as some further questions about it.
RAM memory is the main system’s memory. Unlike what its name may indicate, RAM is volatile memory, not permanent storage memory.
RAM memory is much faster than storage memory, but it is also more expensive in terms of price per megabyte, so it is generally smaller.
RAM memory is used as work memory; This means that when we open an application, it is loaded into the RAM memory and the processor operates with this application directly from the RAM, generally the processor does not read anything directly from the hard disk. There are special cases in which the storage disk is used as RAM memory (swap or paging files), but in general when this happens it is because we have run out of available RAM and the performance drop of the system is noticeable.
By the way! First of all, clarify that many, to answer the question “what is RAM memory?”, have tried to appeal to simple analogies like our brain, but just as our mind and brain do not equal software and hardware respectively, RAM is not a transcript of our short-term memory.
Short-term memory works through indications and premises that lead us to long-term memory, while RAM has a fixed and less fluctuating capacity. We prefer to think of RAM as a desk and the hard drive as a drawer. You don’t empty your entire chest of drawers on the desk. If you need something, you take it from the drawer and put it on the desk.
What does the acronym RAM mean?
The word RAM comes from the acronym: Random Access Memory,.
It is called random access because information can be loaded into memory in any position, having the same access time to that information whatever its position may be, without the need to follow an order to access the data, which would be how its counterpart works, through sequential access. This translates into much faster access to data and memory locations.
What is Ram memory for?
Basically for everything. Without RAM the system would not start. The operating system itself uses an amount of memory just to start, and each application we use, such as the office tools, the browser or the file explorers do too.
There are applications that use more memory than others. You may have heard that Google Chrome (and most modern browsers) consume a lot of RAM, and that is correct, browsers have evolved in a way that they are almost some kind of mini operating system themselves, and in an office environment, they are one of the applications that need the most amount of memory.
Why is RAM so important on a computer?
For practical purposes, it could be said that the proper functioning of RAM memory is essential in a computer because it is one of the components that most directly affects its good performance, especially in terms of speed.
As we have already seen, RAM is responsible for “helping” the processor in its operations, so that it “holds”, for memory purposes, all the instructions and data that the processor needs to use when running a program.
So suppose you want to run several programs on your computer, tablet or smartphone at the same time. For example, a text editor, a browser with 3 open tabs and a business program. If the RAM is in good condition and has enough capacity, you shouldn’t have any problems.
Now imagine that you want to keep using more programs at the same time, or that you want to use more modern programs with higher hardware requirements. For example, in addition to what we saw in our previous example, there are 10 more browser tabs and 3 new and highly demanding enterprise software. In this type of situation, and unless you have a large RAM memory capacity, it is likely that it will start to suffer and your computer will suffer from it.
How much RAM does my system need?
If you do not know beforehand, you are surely an office user. In general, most computers on the market currently come with 8 GB RAM memory, which depending on the OS you use is what, in my opinion, is the standard for a smoothly-working office computer.
If you are a Poweruser, content creator, software developer or IT professional, 8GB of RAM will probably fall short very quickly, depending on your workflow and the applications you use. In general, in these cases, you usually choose between 16 and 32 Gb of RAM, and for very complicated tasks that require a lot of computing power, even more than 32 Gb. This speaking of workstations, from a server approach these numbers spike, but that would be a topic for another article.
As a side note, it is important to note that your system will be as fast as your slowest component, so just increasing RAM does not translate into a universal performance improvement. In addition to understanding that the amount of Gb of memory is not directly proportional to performance, you have to take into account other important factors such as its speed or its latency.
How do we know if RAM is not working properly?
Although it should be diagnosed – and repaired, if necessary – by an IT professional (for example, a computer maintenance technician), there are some behaviors on your computer or device that may indicate that you may be having a problem with your RAM memory. Let’s look at some of them.
1. The computer is running slower than usual
It is the most classic symptom, the most frequent and probably one of the most annoying.
People who use computers or mobile devices have been faced with this problem. The slowness that we may blame on problems with RAM memory is not always due to the fact that it is malfunctioning, but is often due to the fact that we are asking too much of it. Software evolves over time, and it’s common for software to demand more and more of our hardware. And if that hardware is not updated, it will have more and more problems running new programs, and will end up doing it ” with its tongue out “, gasping like an old dog that we forced to run at the pace of an Olympic middle-distance runner.
2. The dreaded “blue screen” comes to visit us
It is one of the classics in Windows operating systems. The famous “blue screens” warn us of problems in our computers, which sometimes have to do with RAM memory. In fact, and since it is so important in computers, a large part of the errors will come from problems with RAM memory. Another good reason to pay attention to it….
3. The computer does not reboot or does not load the operating system
When that happens we are already talking about a more drastic problem. If your device does not turn on or does not charge the OS, you will have to solve the situation if you want to use it, so if this happens and you do not have the necessary knowledge to fix it yourself, go ahead and contact a professional.
Is that all?
And up to here everything you should know about RAM. As we have seen, even the simplest concept has layers and layers of depth into it. Now the next time someone talks to you about RAM, you will already have enough knowledge to smoothly follow the conversation while having a coffee at the office. Don’t thank us. We owe it to you, our unconditional followers, all of our articles.
Before saying goodbye, remember that you can find out everything Pandora FMS can offer you by clicking here .
If you have to monitor more than 100 devices, you may also enjoy a FREE Pandora FMS Enterprise 30-dayTRIAL . Get it here .
In computing, when generally speaking of “log”, we refer to information belonging to a more or less low level reported by the operating system or a specific application that helps identify what is being done, including errors, problems or minor warnings, and when that happens, it indicates the date and time. In some cases, the source, the user, the IP address and other interesting fields from the point of view of what has happened can be identified.
Each application and each operating system can have a different log format. In fact, although there is a certain standard for unifying log records – generically called syslog – the truth is that most applications still have their own formats.
Keep in mind that the term “log” is so generic that it does not even define how that information is stored or where it is stored. In fact, Microsoft Windows systems store information in what they call “system events”, which are accessed through the system event viewer. Each system event in Windows has a series of fields that define the event, its severity, the type of information, category, etc.
Monitoring software feed on logs
Pandora and any other monitoring software uses and generates logs to give you vital information about your systems in real time.
How?
You can see for yourself using the Open Source version of Pandora:
Log examples
This is what a Windows event looks like, which would be the Windows “log”:
While in Windows, the information log or system and application log is almost always unified in the system event viewer, in Unix systems (Linux included in this category) it is much more chaotic, and you will find that there is no single log but rather there are several and with different formats.
This is an example Linux log (messages):
Nov 17 04:19:52 cylon3 systemd: Stopping The Apache HTTP Server… Nov 17 04:19:53 cylon3 systemd: Stopped The Apache HTTP Server. Nov 17 04:19:54 cylon3 systemd: Starting The Apache HTTP Server… Nov 17 04:19:54 cylon3 httpd: AH00558: httpd: Could not reliably determine the server’s fully qualified domain name, using fe80::4637:e6ff:fedd:fa27. Set the ‘ServerName’ directive globally to suppress this message Nov 17 04:19:54 cylon3 systemd: Started The Apache HTTP Server. Nov 17 04:20:41 cylon3 yum[26424]: Installed: php-imap-7.3.24-1.el7.remi.x86_64 Nov 17 04:20:42 cylon3 yum[26424]: Installed: php-ldap-7.3.24-1.el7.remi.x86_64 Nov 17 04:20:44 cylon3 yum[26424]: Installed: php-mbstring-7.3.24-1.el7.remi.x86_64 Nov 17 04:20:52 cylon3 systemd: Stopping The Apache HTTP Server… Nov 17 04:20:53 cylon3 systemd: Stopped The Apache HTTP Server. Nov 17 04:20:53 cylon3 systemd: Starting The Apache HTTP Server… Nov 17 04:20:53 cylon3 httpd: AH00558: httpd: Could not reliably determine the server’s fully qualified domain name, using fe80::4637:e6ff:fedd:fa27. Set the ‘ServerName’ directive globally to suppress this message Nov 17 04:20:53 cylon3 systemd: Started The Apache HTTP Server. Nov 17 05:01:01 cylon3 systemd: Started Session 71 of user root. Nov 17 06:01:01 cylon3 systemd: Started Session 72 of user root. Nov 17 07:01:01 cylon3 systemd: Started Session 73 of user root. Nov 17 07:20:32 cylon3 systemd: Starting Cleanup of Temporary Directories…
On Linux systems, logs are stored in files located in /var/log directory, although many programs handle their own logs and save them in /var/log/. The advantage of Linux is that most logs are plain text log files, accessible and visible from any text handling tool, unlike Windows events that can only be accessed through the event viewer and/or low level API.
Some of the most important logs in Linux and that should be in all systems are the following:
/var/log/messages – Here you will find the system’s generic logs. Many applications dump their logs here through the syslog program that collects log events from other applications to put them in this file.
/var/log/secure – This log records system logins, the times you do su, etc. Failed attempts are recorded in lines with information such as invalid password or authentication failure.
/var/log/dmesg – This file stores the information generated by the kernel during system startup and other events it may generate during execution. These are usually low-level messages not captured by the syslog subsystem.
Some typical application logs that you may optionally find are the following:
/var/log/maillog – Mailing log, generally related to the local mailing subsystem (SMTP, Postfix, sendmail).
/var/log/pandora/pandora/pandora_agent.log – Pandora FMS monitoring agent log, which informs you of each execution and if it has suffered any issues.
/var/log/httpd/access_log – Log from an HTTP server, such as Apache.
What are logs for?
What are logs for? It will depend on what you need, but it is important that you know that logs can be essential from a security point of view, as well as that of the analysis of system usage, performance or failure detection.
Logs are sometimes the “food of choice” for Machine Learning techniques to detect patterns that help you make decisions.
Logs are essential for managing and controlling access to resources; this is related to security audit and derivatives.
To sum up, logs can help you understand how your system is used to prevent information leaks, as well as inappropriate behavior that causes errors.
There are different technologies that help centrally manage logs; the best known worldwide is Splunk, and another one is Pandora FMS for log collection, which allows log storage, collection and management.
What is Amazon CloudWatch Logs?
Amazon CloudWatch Logs is used to monitor and store log files (logs) from Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud (Amazon EC2), AWS CloudTrail, Route 53, and other Amazon sources.
CloudWatch Logs lets you centralize logs for all AWS systems, applications, and services you use, into a single, highly scalable service. It allows you to access and see them to look for specific error codes or patterns in them, set filters based on the content of certain fields, or securely archive them for future analysis.
CloudWatch Logs enables you to see all of your logs regardless of their source, as a single consistent stream of events sorted by date and time, as well as query and sort them based on other dimensions, group them by specific fields, and more. It also allows you to export these data so that other systems (such as Splunk or Pandora FMS) can manage them externally.
What is bandwidth and how it affects connection speed?
What is bandwidth? Over the last few years, and at the dawn of the very celebrated arrival of the Internet into our homes and our beloved cell phones, concepts such as bandwidth, previously restricted to more technical contexts, have come into our lives hand in hand with waves of experts who recommend this or that connection based on criteria that usually fits your brother-in-law’s wisdom.
However, although you may hear a lot about bandwidth and you may have more or less an idea of what it is, it is convenient to know better what we are talking about. So, what is bandwidth? In this post we are going to delve a little into the wonderful world of bandwidth, to discover what it is and understand how having higher or lower bandwidth affects your connection.
What is bandwidth?
If we talk about computing (because the term is also used in other areas of expertise), we know as bandwidth the amount of information (data) that can be sent through a network connection in a certain period of time.
Since it is a measure related to time, bandwidth is usually measured in units of information per second. Depending on the amount of information we are able to send, we will talk about bytes per second (BPS), kilobytes per second (KBPS), megabytes per second (MBPS), etc.
However, there is also another computing meaning of the term that, although it is used less frequently, it is also worth knowing, such as the one that refers to the amount of data transfer (usually measured monthly) that companies offering web hosting services allow their users.
How does all this affect us?
As an attentive and smart reader of Pandora FMS blog, you’re probably getting an idea of what the powerful consequences that higher or lesser bandwidth unleashes on our lives are. Indeed, the ones we are most concerned about have to do with connection speed.
In fact, in this dynamic world we live in, speed is key. And so is data! We want lots of data at the fastest possible speed. How else, otherwise, could we do things like watch dancing parrot videos with no interruption or send our friends pictures of our last breakfast in Super HD quality?
Therefore, if in some situations bandwidth is not adequate to our needs, some symptoms such as the desire to throw the computer out of the window may appear, which is still worrying.
Some reasons why bandwidth might be affecting the connection speed
-Your Internet service provider is not giving you what you need
Did you just hire the best hyper-fast connection on the market, and your angry baby videos are still lagging? You should contact your provider, because there may be some technical issues or they’re not supplying you with the bandwidth you’ve hired and you need.
By the way, we already published a great article about all this, by our colleague Carla Andrés, where we talked about bandwidth monitoring.
However, it may also just be that your connection, which was super-fast before, no longer is. It may have become outdated and you may need to sign up for one that provides you with higher bandwidth to satisfy your data cravings at high speed.
-Someone may be using your Wi-Fi connection without authorization
Remember that neighbor who looks at you in the morning with a knowingly smile? Haven’t you noticed that, since he does, your Internet connection is much slower? Is it possible that he’s using your Wi-Fi connection?
Okay, don’t take this as a white card to suspect all your neighbors – not even those who look at you with a smart face – but you should know that one of the reasons you might be losing speed on your connections is the fact that you’re sharing bandwidth with some unauthorized person.
Wi-Fi connections are usually private and protected by a password, so maybe you should check yours. You could find out that your WiFi is public or poorly protected by a very simple password.
-You’re abusing your connection bandwidth
It’s something that could happen too. Your connection bandwidth may be great, but if you invite a battalion of friends home to connect to the Internet, the speed may suffer. As the name suggests, “width” means something, and if the information demanding to drive through that bandwidth is too large, it will have to wait…
Although the previous reasons (in addition to some others) may be causing a speed drop of your bandwidth-related connection, you should know that there are also other factors that may be affecting it. For example, latency may be too high, or you may have problems with your router. This is not about doing an exhaustive enumeration, but it is also something that you should keep in mind if you have this type of issue.
And now that we have seen “what is bandwidth?”, why don’t you take a few minutes to learn about Pandora FMS?
As you can see, if you read the article we mentioned before, one of the things Pandora FMS can monitor is bandwidth, but Pandora FMS can also monitor many other different things!
Because Pandora FMS is a flexible monitoring software, capable of monitoring devices, infrastructures, applications, services and business processes.
Would you like to find out more about what Pandora FMS can offer you? Click here.
If you have to monitor more than 100 devices, you can also enjoy a FREE 30-day Pandora FMS Enterprise TRIAL . Get it here .
What is VPN and how does it help connection security?
What is VPN? You know that in IT we absolutely love acronyms, right? Specifying and summing things up is our thing. Digital Video Disc? DVD. Central Processing Unit? CPU. Asymmetric Digital Subscriber Line? Yes, you guessed it right: ADSL. In fact, tell me a word, no matter how long… What the heck! let’s take one of the longest words, with no more and no less than 23 characters: electroencephalographer. Well, how would we find this word in a hypothetical technoglossary? Well, I believe that with a “EEG” you would find it.
And here I stop with the acronyms, until people specializing in electroencephalography need them. Now let’s get to more useful things in our sector, such as knowing where it comes from and what is VPN?. Three very important letters, I would say indispensable, for computing and that today Alberto Sánchez Barrios, systems technician at Pandora FMS, will very kindly explain to all of us.
What is VPN?
Well, a VPN is a network technology that is used in order to be able to connect to a private network and access one or more machines on that private network from another location. This would be the best known use of a VPN, but not the only one.
You may also securely link multiple networks to each other, so you can access more networks from a single point. It can be used to use a Wi-Fi network more safely or even connect to networks in other places to “avoid” restrictions by location or country.
The other most important use is to be able to prevent security attacks. Since all connections between the two points will be encrypted, you get an extra layer of communication security, helping companies in this new reality. Bye, bye, dodgy hackers!
What do its acronyms mean?
VPN stands for “Virtual Private Network”. Yes, we know it seemed way more mysterious with the acronym and maybe knowing the actual meaning is a little bit disappointing, but life is like that! Sometimes there’s a surprise waiting around the corner… and well, sometimes… there’s not!
Can you give a specific example in which a VPN would be suitable?
Of course! What better example than this few last months, where companies have been forced to start making remote work mandatory. In this context, VPN is a technology to take very much into account. Now companies have the need to secure the information they have in their company, in the same way that they need to have their employees connected to obtain it.
Let’s picture a company whose business surrounds economic transactions. It is essential for the information they have on their servers to only, I repeat ONLY, be accessible from the “inside”. Therefore, the VPN would be the only entry point from the outside, with user/password security and point-to-point encryption so that at all times the information that the employee is seeing cannot be retrieved by another method.
Are there different types of VPN?
Well, now that you mention it, we could separate them by client-based VPNs and network-based VPNs. It would be possible to make more distinctions if we wanted to but, well, in general we are going to stay with these two branches.
Client-based VPNs allow a user to be connected to a remote network through an application that works to secure communication and keep the VPN up and running. In order for the user to access a protected connection, they have to run this application with their name and password. That way the user gets an encrypted channel between their computer and the remote network and they may exchange data safely.
Network-based VPNs, however, intend to interconnect different types of networks with each other through a common network, such as the Internet. Companies usually do this to interconnect networks regardless of their headquarters, for example, since these are usually geographically distant.
If you want to delve a little more into this type of VPN, you can find the IPSec tunnels, which are like the simplest VPN network. In fact, most of the routers you know and network firewalls have just these properties. If you want to define right the traffic that you want to go through the VPN, these IPsec tunnels could have certain policies so that this traffic is restricted and adapted.
With these three simple questions and three simple answers that Alberto gave us, we have been able to sum up today’s topic “what is VPN?” and why it is so important. We hope it was useful and that you will soon find yourself collected, huddled and safe within a good VPN. See you very soon with new concepts that are apparently simple, but that help us, day by day, within computing and technology.
Of course, before saying goodbye, we remind you that you can learn more about what Pandora FMS can offer you by visiting our home page.
If you have to monitor more than 100 devices, you can also enjoy a FREE 30-day Pandora FMS Enterprise TRIAL . Get it here .
5 big network monitoring mistakes and how to solve them
If you run a sizable enterprise, your network is probably sprawling. You also probably have a network management or IT security team on the payroll to handle monitoring. Their job is to check the network for potential security intrusions, make sure resources aren’t overloaded in one area, and otherwise ensure that things run smoothly.
But the size of many networks can quickly become unwieldy, and even the best network monitoring teams can sometimes commit serious yet simple mistakes that can lead to quick disasters. It’s these mistakes that lead to sudden network outages, security breaches, and potentially millions of dollars lost.
Here are five of the most common network monitoring mistakes, plus ways to avoid them.
Being reactive to cybersecurity threats
New network management teams will often adopt a reactive approach to their cybersecurity, but this is often a mistake. The fact of the matter is that cyber-threats grow and evolve much faster than anyone can anticipate. A cybersecurity team that only reacts to various digital threats will constantly be on the back foot, be unable to challenge network vulnerabilities, and will eventually fail their network.
The solution
Adopting a proactive security approach is the best bet. This involves constantly being updated in terms of antivirus and cybersecurity practices, and it’s also why adopting open-sourced-based security measures is another good idea.
Several of the most popular open source-based DevOps tools, such as Monit and Nagios, come with network monitoring capabilities that can allow you to evolve your network’s security practices with much more agility and allow you to get updates more easily.
And of course, Pandora FMS can also help you with those kinds of problems, helping you manage backups, monitoring firmware update status through your inventory or making sure that antivirus programs work automatically through software agents.
Not watching both devices and applications
Most network teams are probably familiar with the reality that applications take up tons of network resources. But even understanding this, network monitoring teams will more often watch devices rather than applications, as if they can catch a potential security threat by device activity alone.
This is a problem since it prevents any monitoring team from getting the full picture of network performance and potential security vulnerabilities.
The solution
Anyone monitoring your network must have a full view of the network’s current status, potential breaches, and resource usage. For instance, a team needs to know if and when a breach occurs, and whether insufficient resources are being diverted to certain applications or users.
Otherwise, the network could go down. This is a huge deal, and even simple sites (like WordPress-based businesses or blogs) can take days or weeks to restore. Larger enterprises might be down for even longer, costing money and customers.
Look into a network monitoring vendor that can offer a unified network application monitoring suite. Or add more members to your team so that they have enough eyes on each aspect of your network. In other words, comprehension is the only way to guarantee excellent network functionality over the long-term.
Not collecting and analyzing network device logs
Practically all modern networking devices will generate logs that contain excellent information that network management teams can leverage for greater security, better efficiency, and less downtime. But if your enterprise isn’t collecting and using these logs, it’s literally giving away free information that could be used to run things better.
Network device logs offer critical information about how devices are operating, how network resources are being used, potential traffic spikes, and so on. This information can even help a team learn about a possible cybersecurity breach.
But if this information isn’t being collected, you’re not only wasting the functionality of your networked devices, but you’re also not doing your best for your enterprise and overall network.
The solution
Use the logs. This sounds simple, but it’s the truth. Your network managing team needs to get into the habit of collecting and analyzing network event logs every week, if not every day. Such habits can help them troubleshoot certain device issues, examine performance events and historical security, and even track user activity. All of these will lead to a or tightly run network and a more secure network overall.
Worried about these logs being compromised? Consider keeping this data (and any other sensitive data) in a SaaS cloud security service. This modern approach is already being adopted by companies in every industry, and an estimated 86% of all enterprises will be reliant on SaaS by 2022.
Most importantly, SaaS can keep your logs off vulnerable hardware on your campus or premises, plus keep it retrievable in an instant and protected by the most up-to-date security software on the market.
Again, Pandora FMS can also help you collect and see logs in a simple, easy and economical way, so that you can locate them whenever you need thanks to a search engine based on text strings. In addition, you will have at your disposal an excellent tool to create reports for better result display.
Neglecting key network updates
Many networks are vulnerable because their management teams fail to properly monitor for updates and improvements to technology. Cybercriminals and their methods of intrusion and hacking are constantly evolving, but so are counterefforts and defense technologies.
Yet failing to utilize these – such as failing to roll out a security update for a campus’s network – can lead to huge problems that could have easily been avoided with the right habits and attention.
The solution
A network management team should constantly be abreast of new digital developments, including new updates for software and security technology. This is best done by having the team review relevant sites and informative newsletters, as well as paying attention to update requests and packets sent out by technology used by your network. Never let an update go uninstalled.
Pandora FMS is also capable of helping you find out whether your software is in optimal conditions. For example, thanks to Pandora FMS Inventory you may use search tools in real time that help you locate hardware devices, users or vulnerable versions of installed software. Furthermore, you may receive alerts in the face of any changes in your IT actives, like for example a new user logging into your system, a new application being installed or hardware version changes
Not imposing digital hygiene practices on users
This big network monitoring mistake doesn’t take place in the digital realm at all. Instead, it concerns how enterprise employees (or even executives) use their technology and expose their network to hacking or other vulnerabilities.
For instance, imagine a CEO that leaves his or her work email’s password out for anyone to pick up. Such an incident could easily cause a huge scandal – the network monitoring team might notice something was wrong, but see the CEO’s credentials and not recognize the breach until it’s too late. Improper digital hygiene can lead to a number of issues including network resource misuse, hacks, and many more problems that you don’t want to deal with.
The solution
The solution to this real-world problem is also based on real-world practices. Network management teams should regularly give out digital hygiene seminars and informative practice sessions to train employees about smart password protection, code use, and network access protocols.
All of these will go a long way toward preventing your enterprise and network from being easily penetrated or taken down by an opportunistic cybercriminal.
Alternatively, your network management team can also require that employees using company devices use virtual private networks (VPNs) to encrypt company data and hide it from hackers. Most VPNs are actually very effective at masking your information and IP addresses, so long as you go with one that utilizes AES 256-bit or IKEv2 encryption protocols.
Yet another option would be for the company to install antivirus systems to stop malware, spam and phishing filters for company emails, and impose similar security measures. These management practices will combine to make your network stronger overall.
Conclusion
The bottom line is this: network monitoring is a big job, and there are lots of network monitoring mistakes you could make. But network management teams can still take charge and avoid some of the common mistakes that bring down big companies by following the above practices. Don’t let your company be an easy target for network hackers or fall prey to simple network resource mismanagement.
If you want to check how Pandora FMS can help you solve issues in your network’s monitoring, the best way is to experience it yourself. Get a Pandora FMS Enterprise FREE 30-DAY TRIAL.
Managing Network Configuration Changes: Five Best Practices
Do you know what the most common cause of network outages and performance problems is? Misconfiguration.
For as much time and energy as people spend talking about issues such as infrastructure and cybercrime, the truth is that basic low-level configuration challenges are still the biggest “threat” to properly-functioning networks. Following best practices in network monitoring and configuring when implementing any kinds of changes, or just in day-to-day maintenance, can make a world of difference when it comes to maintaining a well-optimized network.
What Causes Network Misconfiguration?
The list of reasons why a network might end up poorly configured is endless, but these are some of the most common reasons.
Major software upgrades without proper planning. This has been a particularly large challenge in 2020, as many companies have been scrambling to implement systems to accommodate workers staying at home. Without proper planning, issues are bound to occur.
Changing security / data regulations. Every year brings more stringent regulations on data handling, retention, and other security-related issues. Updating policies and configurations to deal with these changes can easily cause unexpected problems to occur.
Unauthorized network changes. Well-meaning employees or managers may attempt to “fix” problems, and only create new problems as a result. You need solutions for network monitoring that prevent these changes from becoming problematic.
Difficulty monitoring or updating remote systems. Again, this is another problem that has been brought to the fore by the 2020 coronavirus outbreak. Too many new devices getting onto a network, without proper network monitoring and configuration tools will quickly degrade performance.
In short, maintaining a robust and effective network requires constantly staying on top of new situations, and having clear plans of action for implementing changes when they become necessary.
Five Best Practices For Network Monitoring And Configuration
1 – Have standardized configurations for all major device categories
This one might seem basic and obvious, but you’d be surprised just how often we see IT managers overlook this relatively simple step. You should have standardized configurations for every type of device that might be attached to your network. This should include LAN switches, WAN switches, hubs, Wi-Fi routers, and any other commonly used devices. Having standardized configurations reduces the likelihood that new devices will cause major new problems.
Of course, you won’t always be able to rely on the standard configurations, but it’s a start. For one thing, a well-written set of standards means that everything begins in a situation where all existing rulesets are already being obeyed. This makes it easier to remember your priorities, as you fine-tune the configuration for new devices.
Also, this will help mitigate the damage done by any unauthorized network upgrades. Ideally, no one would ever attach any new devices to the network without clearing it, but at least if they do, you’ll hopefully have a configuration in place that will prevent the device from causing any sort of catastrophic harm or opening up major security holes.
2 – Maintain a database of previous functional network configurations
Again, this is basic stuff, but basic stuff that gets overlooked or ignored as a needless redundancy. You should always keep backups of at least the last 3-5 good working configurations, so that reversion is always an option if a new network upgrade or piece of equipment proves to be unexpectedly problematic.
This is also a good hedge against problems caused by malicious interference in your network configuration. If a hacker or virus manages to shut down some of your protections, you should be able to restore the previous configuration as quickly and easily as possible.
Plus, they give you a benchmark to judge new configurations against if you’re ever uncertain whether an improvement has actually improved anything.
3 – Have a real-time change alert system
If you really want to be on the ball about preventing unwanted changes to your network – whether well-meaning or malicious – then invest in a real-time network monitoring and alert system. You should be able to configure this with whatever flags you find useful so that you’ll know instantly if anyone besides yourself has made any significant changes to the network, devices, or configuration.
Plus, this can be invaluable in the case it is some sort of cyber-crime. You’ll know what’s happened faster, and you’ll be able to backtrack the changes more quickly to their original cause.
4 – Document all changes extensively
On the topic of backtracking, there’s also really no such thing as “too much documentation” when it comes to tracking changes. From major network upgrades to everyday tweaks to your configurations and rulesets, everything should be documented. This is especially important if there are multiple people empowered to make network changes on your behalf. Databases of changes may be the only way to figure out who did what if a misconfiguration crops up.
Also, there’s always the matter of human error. When a simple typo can potentially derail a ruleset, it should take as little time as possible figuring out where it came from. The documentation process itself will also provide an opportunity for small mistakes to be noticed before they go live.
5 – Automation is your friend
And on the subject of human error, why rely on manual labor when you can avoid it? Most of the items discussed here, such as logging changes and maintaining configuration backups, can be automated. Mistakes such as typos are much less likely to become an issue when there is a robust automation system handling minor day-to-day tasks.
When implementing any sort of automation, it will be vital to test it thoroughly in some sort of sandbox environment. Likewise, you should have processes in place to verify each step in the automation process so that you can oversee their behavior until you’re certain that everything is running as planned. Done properly, however, automation will save you a lot of manhours, as well as reducing accidental mistakes.
Pandora FMS Offers The Network Monitoring And Supervision You Need
Pandora FMS is a best-in-class monitoring software aimed at giving IT managers all the tools they need to oversee their networks, regardless of size, complexity, or physical location. We’ve specialized in network and server monitoring tools for over fifteen years, and are relied on by companies in forty countries around the world.
If you don’t know, I already tell you that it is always convenient to have a good WiFi signal, and that is why, today, on Pandora FMS blog, we are going to talk about how to amplify WiFi.
The WiFi signal has probably replaced karma, chakra, qì and the papal blessing as invisible and magical things that we like but do not understand. It is true that it does not have such ancient, spiritual and esoteric roots, but on countless occasions it may be much more useful. But the question is, how can I amplify WiFi signals?
By now everyone knows what WiFi is, right? It is said of that technology that we have at home beating in the router, or that we try to take advantage of in establishments, and that enables wireless interconnection of our electronic devices to the Internet. Computers of all kinds and fur, smartphones, modern TVs, next-generation consoles, music players and everything you can think of, conceived at this time, can connect to each other and to the Internet, through this all-powerful being that is WiFi.
Place your router correctly
The first idea on how to amplify WiFi is to place your router in the best location at home. The signal must cover as much as possible and therefore must be located in a central location, both for horizontal and vertical coordinates. If you could trace a cross through the rooms and floors of your house, you should place it right in the middle.
It is also important for you to place it at a height according to that of your appliances, so it is best to put it on a shelf or a table with a mat, and place it in a horizontal position. And if you manage to keep the signal from being disturbed by thick walls, metal or water, that would be perfect. These cloud it and weaken it.
Set properly your router’s antenna
This step to amplify WiFi only applies if your router has an antenna. It is recommended for these antennas to be located standing up and in a vertical position, as they do not send the signal equally in all directions. They do it from their tip in a more horizontal than vertical way. That’s why it’s important for them to be at the same height as that of your devices.
If your router has multiple antennas you can place one vertically and one horizontally to also cover upper floors. You can even tilt the antenna 45 degrees so that the signal covers both the top floors and the bottom floors.
As in everything, try several positions and keep the one that works best. But yes, you have to engrave on fire the idea that antennas throw their signal more powerfully from their sides than from their end.
Use a signal repeater
WiFi repeaters work in a simple way: they catch your router’s WiFi signal and amplify it and extend it to a new area. Thus, where your router could not reach before, the amplifier helps it and you can get a better signal.
These amps tend to pay off considerably more than PLCs, as these come in a sizable gadget pack, while the amp works on its own. They are cheaper and less complicated to place.
The PLC aims at the same results as the repeaters but through your home’s electrical wiring. That way, if the WiFi signal does not reach your room from the living room, you can, through plugs, bring it closer to get better coverage.
The best channel
Usually your newly installed router will choose the best WiFi channel, but sometimes, if the router is of poor quality, it will not perform this simple procedure properly. Therefore, to channel it, access your router with its username and password through the IP address. From there, in the wireless network sections, you will have the option of selecting a different channel. If your router is dual band and operates on both frequencies, you may choose the channel for both.
If you are now wondering which channel to choose, the answer is easy: the least crowded. You must use a WiFi spectrum analyzer to locate it.
And up to here is our list of tips to amplify your WiFi. Surely, if you delve deeper into the vast and alienated fields of the Internet, you will find less orthodox methods to help you make a homemade amplifier antenna out of leftover cans of Coke and paper clips stolen from your office, but we decided to stick to these.
Finally, we remind you that Pandora FMS can do such extraordinary things as monitoring WiFi. You don’t believe it? Well, read this article by Jimmy Olano and you will see.
If you want to find out about what Pandora FMS can offer you, find out by clicking here.
Moreover, if you have to monitor more than 100 devices, you may also enjoy a FREE 30-day Pandora FMS Enterprise TRIAL. Get it here.
Pandora FMS is a proactive, advanced, flexible and easy-to-configure monitoring tool tailored to each business. It gets integrated into all the needs of servers, network computers, terminals and whatever needs to be monitored. In this article we will focus on workstation monitoring, especially Windows, Mac and Linux.
Businesses are not only tied to servers, there are also workstations that play an essential role in your business, such as sale points, administrative teams that make payments, a dynamic poster that shows advertising or anything else important for your business.
Supported operating systems
Pandora FMS has agents available for current Windows 10 editions and earlier versions, and MacOS (the agent will be released in DMG format soon). Also for Linux, in desktop versions or as a kiosk (browser-based application), such as a shift system or a monitor connected to a Raspberry Pi displaying advertisements.
What can you do when monitoring clients?
We always think of monitoring from a server approach. Let’s see a clear example: it is essential for a Call Center for your central IP to be working properly. This is a correct statement from the server’s perspective, but if you think beyond, you can see all your phones, IPs and not only the network status (it is done with a PING, ICMP test); you can even know the registration status of your intern to the telephone exchange and you can measure you network’s quality, allowing based on the picture (current status) and the film (historical data) to know and plan improvements so as not to reach a critical point where some internal ones don’t work due to serious network issues.
Let’s look at a visual console resulting from this type of monitoring.
As you can see, there are several internal ones that do not work. Nowadays, many people work from home and as a result of the pandemic.
In addition to generating graphics, you can configure alerts that warn you if a device does not work or any of the services is not within the normal parameters according to the business.
Multi-platform client monitoring
Many of the things that can be important in your business depend on workstations: it could, for example, be a video editing studio that works with MacOS. One of the most common problems in this type of business is disk space and being able to have statistics on this use can be solved by just installing the Pandora FMS agent and monitoring disk status. Let’s see this graphically:
We see that the operating system disk is 85% used and you can get ahead by making some adjustments before your system stops working due to lack of space. The client works great on macOS High Sierra and superior.
Desktops with Windows 10 or earlier versions
Windows is the most widely used business-level platform and many companies have their management systems running on this platform, and in many cases they even share a folder from a computer to have a multi-user system. What can you do with Pandora FMS? The answer is very broad, so let’s think about what is best to monitor. I just came up with two important scenarios to consider.
Not to fill the disks.
Service status (many management softwares run some service on Windows).
Again, to see how you can see our Windows workstations, let’s look at some images to get a better idea of how it works:
We see that you can have an invaluable view of your workstations. In our example, the agent does not have anything additional, but thinking about your business you may adjust it according to your needs without much effort. In addition to creating visual consoles, a user with read permissions can be provided to the level 1 support team, so that they can perform workstation monitoring on your organization using the Tactical View, a very useful Pandora FMS feature in all its versions.
We see that in this view you can quickly see the status of all monitored workstations in Windows, Linux and MacOS.
Linux desktops and kiosk mode applications
Perhaps it is not so frequent, but there are businesses where Linux is an essential tool for daily work. It could be an organization that works 100% with free software, they are not that frequent but they exist, or applications that run in kiosk mode. There are many interesting projects, but as an example I will name two projects such as free software MotionEye (system to see RSTP cameras, IP, Etc) and openHAB, a smart home automation system. I use both at home, where I have set up some smart home functions integrating Security, Automation and Monitoring (Pandora FMS) into my daily life. Again let’s see graphically what it is:
View of a camera in MotionEYE
OpenHAB view in iPhone application
In this case it is essential to know the status of the services of both solutions, and in case of having a problem, Pandora FMS sends an alert to be able to solve it as quickly as possible.
The purpose of this article is to share a broader monitoring view. While in my case, my smart home runs on Raspberry Pi and is more like a server environment, the solution runs in my home and is similar to a workstation. In my case it is critical because, if it doesn’t work, I lose all automations and views of my security cameras. So that this does not happen, Pandora FMS Cloud was the perfect solution to my specific needs.
Remember, however, that those we have seen are just some examples of what Pandora FMS can do when we talk about workstation monitoring. If you have more than 100 devices to monitor, you can check the full potential of Pandora FMS Enterprise version by requesting a FREE 30 DAY TRIAL.
One benefit of the lockdown triggered by the coronavirus epidemic has been a renewed enthusiasm for working at home. Forced to let millions of employees work from home to avoid contagion, companies that had been hesitant about taking this step have concluded they can benefit from moving to a remote workforce.
One of the main drivers behind this shift is the economic incentive as having an employee work from home half the time can save an employer thousands of dollars a year in increased productivity, lower real estate costs, and reduced absenteeism. In order to realize these benefits, many companies are deploying employee monitoring software. However, using this software to keep tabs on employees can have disadvantages for organizations.
In this article, we’ll look at how organizations are deploying employee monitoring software, the problems it can lead to, and show you how to use it effectively.
1. Remote Working monitoring
The huge shift to remote working caused by the pandemic has led to a parallel rise in the use of remote monitoring software. Numerous media outlets have reported how computer monitoring software products have flourished during the coronavirus pandemic as companies try to keep tabs on far-flung workers.
The use of this software is certainly understandable and represents a critical component of managing your workers remotely. For many managers who are familiar with “traditional” office environments, suddenly letting their staff work with far less supervision often leads to fears that they will be less productive. There are also legitimate fears that a move to remote working might make computer networks less secure.
Given these concerns, employee remote working monitoring software seems a natural way to remotely manage a business, and to ensure that remote employees and freelancers stay safe while they are working remotely
2. The Pitfalls of Surveillance
Unfortunately, your employees might not see it this way. Some of the more advanced employee monitoring solutions allow employers to track what websites employees are visiting, measure mouse movements, and even monitor keystrokes. Though this kind of digital monitoring of employees was an existing work trend before the emergence of COVID-19, the pandemic has exacerbated fears that employers might “spy” on their employees.
An over-eager application or remote working monitoring software risks alienating your employees, and this can have a major impact on your staff retention rates. Research led by Baylor University forecast workers’ likelihood of quitting their jobs, and found that monitoring software correlated with greater employee tension and less job satisfaction, indicating higher turnover intent. Indeed, one of the major reasons why workers in the tech sector turn to remote work and freelancing is to avoid this kind of stress.
It’s not all bad news, though. Research conducted in 2019 by researchers at the University of Jyväskylä in Finland sought to measure the consequences of internet monitoring software, and found that this kind of monitoring had some positive effects. The research suggests that this kind of surveillance slightly increases employees’ motivation to earn rewards or avoid punishment. However, the same research also found that tracking internet activity can significantly reduce employees’ intrinsic work motivation, and has a major deleterious effect on their creativity.
3. Taking an Intelligent Approach
Given this research, it’s clear that employers should take an intelligent approach to monitoring their remote employees. At the most fundamental level, employers need to strike a careful balance between surveillance and trust. Having no monitoring software at all will harm productivity, but tracking employees too closely will reduce their creativity.
When looking to use employee monitoring software, the approach should therefore be one in which you try to create a healthy remote work culture, rather than relying on punitive sanctions if remote employees don’t meet their targets.
Achieving a healthy work culture, in turn, rests on a simple realization: we have offices for a reason. The traditional office is effective and productive not because it allows managers to continually check what their employees are doing, but because it allows easy and instant communication between employees and managers.
In many regards, the cloud has become the office of the remote worker. The most popular cloud storage services such as Google Drive or iCloud come with numerous important features that make remote work both convenient and safe, such as numerous third party app integrations, simple user interfaces. 256-bit encryption, and machine learning-powered anomaly detections. Additionally, the cloud provides a way for cybersecurity engineers to secure computer networks, because all of your critical data is stored in one place.
The best employee monitoring software is therefore built to be far more than just a simple productivity monitoring tool. Instead, this type of software acts as a communication portal through which teams are able to coordinate and track their work, and also to secure client data in remote environments.
By focusing on the “outputs” that employees produce, rather than the raw number of hours they are putting into their work, managers can avoid the perception that they are “spying” on their employees. If employee monitoring software is deployed as a tool for communication and collaboration, rather than as a surveillance platform, employees will recognize that their managers are working to support them, rather than checking in on their every move.
What is Open Pandora and what does it have to do with Pandora FMS?
Our world is full of funny stuff. Things like the most common name in the world being Mohammed or that the ancient Romans, when they had to swear they were telling the truth in a trial, instead of doing it on the Bible, they did it by holding their testicles with their right hand (that’s where the word “testify” comes from…). And like that, hundreds of little things. That is why today, in our blog, we wanted to highlight one of them, not because it is the International Day of Technological Funny Things, which I do not know if exists, but because we thought they were funny and as you can see, they have a lot to do with us.
What is Open Pandora?
Now seriously, dear followers of this blog, if I asked you: What is Open Pandora? What would you answer? “I would say that it is your community of users of Pandora FMS OpenSource version”. “No, no, I think it’s a tennis tournament sponsored by your company.” “Or a superliminal order to open mythological boxes.” And friends… you would all be wrong.
Open Pandora is something that, at first, may seem like it has nothing to do with us, but if you dig a little, you will realize that there is something. Open Pandora is a portable video game system that was released in May 2010. It runs on open source software that includes a full GNU/Linux distribution in its firmware and has enough power inside to emulate PS1, 3DO and most older 16-bit and 8-bit devices.
What does it have to do with Pandora FMS?
The name: It seems that we are not the only ones to turn to Greek mythology, nor to the name of the first woman made by Hephaestus who messed it up a bit with I don’t know what box, according to poet Hesiod. In fact, aside from this console, we share name with a Danish jewelry maker and a fictitious moon imagined by freaking James Cameron.
Open Source Software: Both Open Pandora and Pandora FMS have open source software. You know, the open-source model is a decentralized software development model that encourages open collaboration. We both use this type of model and code in response to some limitations of other models that we do not like and that can sometimes make users’ lives hard.
What do we like about our Open Pandora namesake?
Perhaps what we like the most about our homonym is their vocation to promote free and open source software. They, for example, include all kinds of features that no handheld game console has on the market, turning them into a mix between a handheld game console and a subnotebook. Something new and different. Just like us.
Open Pandora was designed based on ideas and suggestions contributed by forum members, with the goal of creating the ultimate open source portable device. That reminds us of the great contributions of our users, which we try to include in each of our monthly releases.
When they announced its creation, they anticipated that the design would be the most powerful that any portable video game console has seen so far. And they worked hard for it. Even in the final finish, that of the case and keyboard, they had one of the most pro guys on the market for hardware stuff, Dave Cancilier, or “DaveC” as he is known in the purist forums in the sector.
If you are wondering how gamers use this console, well, it’s easy, one of the main uses of Open Pandora is for home games and for emulating computer systems and classic video game consoles. Open Pandora developers have already shown top functional emulators for Dreamcast, PlayStation, Nintendo 64, SNES, Atari Jaguar and Sega Mega Drive. In other words, definitely cool.
Like us, Open Pandora is also related to Debian and it has its own Wiki. However, it is supported by its community by keeping track of new software releases.
And those were the things we have in common with our beloved namesake Open Pandora. Now I hope that every time you hear the name Pandora, either in Avatar or in a game of God of War, or as we have seen, in other types of technological devices, from mixers to open software game consoles, you remember us.
Finally, if you are not a regular of this blog, you may not yet know what Pandora FMS is: Pandora FMS is a flexible monitoring system, capable of monitoring devices, infrastructures, applications, services and business processes.
As we said before, Pandora FMS has a lot to do with open source IT. If you want to get to know and download its Community version, you can do so by clicking here.
And finally, remember that if you have to monitor more than 100 devices, you may also enjoy a FREE 30-day Pandora FMS Enterprise TRIAL . Get it here
GNU Linux commands essential to carry out a hardware inventory
In the beginning we, as Humanity, created computers. We said “let it be electricity” and it was the light on our ballistic trajectory calculations. We saw the numbers matched and they were good. And we called the set of calculation instructions as “programs”, which were loaded straight into computer memories. And so was the first computing decade. GNU Linux commands didn’t exist yet, because there were no operating systems either.
All in all, the first computers were boring, similar to microwave ovens, very useful, but in the end, they just heat. Soon, scientists and/or mathematicians (yes, programmers as a profession would take longer to come) realized that the instructions, so carefully stamped as ones and zeroes on cardboard cards, only were useful for the machines they were created for and it was very difficult to use them in other computer models.
Punched card with a Fortran language instruction (Arnold Reinhold, Wikipedia)
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:FortranCardPROJ039.agr.jpg
For that reason, programming languages such as Fortran and Cobol were born, to train staff according to a standard. I have here summed up more than 170 years of history, since Ada Lovelace proposed to Charles Babbage for her Analytical Engine to run more than just programs. And here we are in the 21st century with operating systems interconnected to networks all over the world.
Later on, Operating Systems solved the problem of hardware compatibility and we developed a standard – with standards such as POSIX – for interacting with devices and the exchange of information among them.
This currently allows monitoring systems like Pandora FMS to find it very useful to use GNU Linux commands to return metrics from a Pandora FMS Server.
What I express here is not Pandora FMS official position or the opinion of their development team. Here you can check their official roadmap.
As we clearly saw in the previous video, Pandora FMS uses GNU Linux commands very well and in a very practical, simple and centralized way. Also, in Pandora FMS Software Agents (small programs that execute GNU Linux commands or other executables that return metric values and are later sent to Pandora FMS Server) these commands work almost the same way.
Do you remember that I told you that, at first, developing applications that could migrate to other laboratories with different hardware was a problem? Operating systems took care of that by collecting drivers, that is, specific binary instructions that allow hardware to communicate with the OS. This allows applications, by means of a programming language for that OS, to completely forget about bare-metal.
Pandora FMS Enterprise version has a huge amount of MIBs for SNMP protocol (if you like technical details, I chose this example that shows how to monitor data backup devices on magnetic tapes), and no wonder, Pandora FMS is in charge of monitoring operating systems, full networks and whatever we like in local network and wide network management.
Yes, ladies and gentlemen, this is a huge deal. But when a job or task is very large or complex, such as keeping a detailed hardware inventory, it is advisable to break it down and go for the core issue. Let’s have a look!
GNU Linux Commands
Many of them are tools created for Unix® OS, used by -at the time- very young Doctor Richard Matheus Stallman RMS at Massachusetts Institute of Technology and which were modified to be open and free and always thinking of other hardware environments.
It is a source of teasing that the Hurd kernel (its environment is called GNU Hurd) is monolithic and complicated, and many bet it will never become a solid OS for mass use, as GNU Linux is now. That is why Dr. Linus Torvalds was brilliant: he knew how to recognize the new hardware of that time (Intel® 386 processor) and create a modern and functional OS core.
That’s how, for example, Pandora FMS team decided to develop and spread all their tools to and have them run directly on the Linux kernel, with a free software license, and thus the hypothetical distributions Pandora FMS Linux were born. This is why we always write GNU Linux together to be specific; hence this article is called “GNU Linux commands” (although some of them are actually GNU licensed and not directly developed or hosted by the Free Software Foundation).
I here explain in a theoretical way the GNU Linux commands that I consider essential when inventorying hardware for subsequent monitoring with Pandora FMS.
fdisk
fdisk –help
I feel nostalgia for this program since the 1980s, when I used it as a Microsoft MS-DOS® utility to create and modify fixed disk partitions. I chose it first in the list because it illustrates and warns:
fdisk is a program, and it also works as a library , that is, you may integrate it into your own source code and compile (remember to place the corresponding license notices). In its latest version 2.36, released in July 2020, it still supported DOS®. Keep in mind it has been forked and migrated to many platforms and is very different from its origins; just as we now as adults are different from when we were children, yet we are the same
fdisk must be run with administrator permissions. Its aim is not to inventory any hardware, but it has a parameter called “–list” that either shows information about all the storage devices in your GNU Linux or one in particular.
Taking into account the previous point, like everything in free software, we are the only ones responsible for the use -and abuse- of the software, which has guarantees. Having root user permissions (root user) is our exclusive competence, based on the fact that we know the source code of each of the GNU Linux programs and commands. You have been warned!
fdisk can also take values from the file named “/proc/partitions/”. Linux makes files and directories available that directly and in real time provide information about your hardware, which you may open in a command terminal. You can open and list the special location “/proc” and you will see a lot of information that you could take “raw”, which leads us to the next point.
fdisk has no more options to report storage hardware. However, you can use the usual GNU Linux commands (cat, ls, grep, awk,etc.) concatenating their outputs by means of the vertical bar to obtain and debug your metrics and then make them be processed locally or remotely by Pandora FMS Server.
GNU Linux awk and grep commands
fdisk will be useful for cases where you need or want to know the disk’s geometry (if it is a magnetic plate).
sudo fdisk –list
free
I choose secondly the GNU Linux command called free: it was the first command I met in action within a Pandora FMS complement. Before going into the hardware inventory itself, it is an excellent example of how to develop your GNU Linux commands; free gets its information from “/proc/meminfo”. In addition, said complement uses the nomenclature -and good development standards- used by Pandora FMS to assimilate the collected metrics. Have fun for a while and learn, but please come back!
inxi
I present inxi, although the version I actually evaluated is not a command as such but ten thousand lines of code with BASH scripts. Sounds awesome right? inxi uses two must-have directories for its execution: “/proc” and “/sys” (you can use the “–recommends” parameter to fully know if you have all the necessary tools to get the most out of inxi).
GNU Linux inxi command (installation and use of -Fxz parameter)
In the previous image you can see the installation (version 2.3.56) in my virtual machine, running Ubuntu server 18.
I immediately executed the parameter “-Fxz”: letter f to know all the details, letter x to obtain more details (up to 3 x’s) and the most important and interesting, letter z that filters unique information (for example, the MAC of the network card shows the label “<filter>“).
As network administrators and within our monitoring tasks we must be careful with the information we keep in Pandora FMS, if the network is not our property (we work as employees or freelancers). At least many proprietary programs identify a computer by its motherboard serial and/or network card serial and/or disk serial set and/or any other component. Changing any of them may result in an invalid use license with the consequent company stoppage (in case of an essential software). See on my old laptop that I took as a guinea pig:
inxi -i -z
I chose this computer because it is the last one of a batch that we bought, so I myself have repaired it with spare parts from here and there: a whole Frankenstein machine. I also connect my Kindle, a USB to PS/2 converter, an old 3G USB modem and of course, it has several network cards, camera and microphone, etc. It is representative for hardware inventory with GNU Linux commands!
inxi -Fz Tnxi from version 3.X was completely rewritten in Perl 5.X language, which makes it a proper GNU Linux command.
Another funny use of filtering unique hardware information is related to integrating inxi into IRC clients, such as Konversation. This is to show other people hardware information in real time (to be honest I was unable to install this feature when I finished this article).
Konversation version 1.7.4
df
The df command was one of the first I learned in 2014 when I decided to use completely free software. It is part of the GNU Kernel Utilities from the Free Software Foundation. There is a tool written in Python language, appropriately called pydf, which colors the result of df to your liking.
df –version
hwinfo
hwinfo must be installed from the repositories of each GNU Linux distribution. Both this application and Pandora FMS Software Agents can be massively installed with Ansible, Puppet or Chef, among other applications for Server Configuration Management.
hwinfo –short
With hwinfo I present the concept of categories for hardware inventory. Like this you can check a mouse connected to the computer, keyboards, etc. For each category it returns one or more values. This is known as key value and it is very important to store it in non-SQL based databases.
Together with the name and unique identifier of each computer, you could use artificial intelligence and give it these data to generate a change alert (a disconnected mouse, for example). Look at this concept: I am not talking about standardizing and fixing in detail each mouse in the company for its monitoring, I am talking about automata that help you mass work.
It does not mean you cannot get traditional metrics either: if you look at the image again, hwinfo is able to tell you how fast each core of the central processor works, since this in laptops varies according to workload and contributes to reducing battery consumption.
sudo apt install hwinfo
dmidecode
Do you remember that operating systems allow us to abstract from the hardware model we are using? Here we give it a twist and we have the command GNU Linux dmidecode, which gets its values directly from the motherboard. There are two specifications: Desktop Management Interface (1994) and System Management BIOS (1999), very complex to explain here. However, dmidecode is also practical: if necessary you can get values from “/sys/devices/virtual/dmi/id”.
Like hwinfo, you can check by hardware category with the option “-t” (in GNU Linux the parameters can be invoked in a short way with a dash and a letter; in this case the long option would be “- type”) together with a value between zero and 255… but let’s leave machine language for artificial intelligence and let it test each of those values.
We humans can use the parameter “-s” or “–string” together the keyword, look:
dmidecode
I say that monitoring is also an art, apart from being a science: it is not only what we have but how far we can go. Let’s look at this case study.
sudo dmidecode -t memory | grep Capacity
This will return a key and a value:
Maximum Capacity: 8 GB
If the company decides to “repower” their computers, you will be able to determine which devices you can buy more RAM memory for by just subtracting the installed memory. Pandora FMS has the ability to do post-computation on collected metrics (the most highlighting example is converting bits to bytes).
hdparm
Another powerful command that must be invoked as root user: we will only use its parameter “-i” in a simple way and “-I” in an extended way (in GNU Linux environments, upper and lowercase letters really matter).
hdparm specializes in writing or setting operational values on storage devices. It struck me that it can even be used to label a sector as damaged on a RAID storage and evaluate whether it works as expected. That is why many of its parameters have the warnings “DANGEROUS”. You are warned again!
We will only use it to retrieve information, never to write values; there are the parameters “–Istdout” (which export the hexadecimal identifiers of each disk) and after filtering we send it again for a specific query, this time with the parameter “–Istdin” (again, let’s leave this task for artificial intelligence).
hdparm
Data quality and artificial intelligence
We have already scratched the surface on GNU Linux commands for detailed hardware inventory. As you can see, this task is titanic. Without going into long theories, I will say that data quality is related to how reliable the collected information is. I already mentioned collecting in a non-traditional way in a SQL database and artificial intelligence to detect changes in a computer, since the redundancy of similar and/or identical values speak of the quality of the data collected (for our case, since they are metrics).
The following commands have the option of exporting reports in different formats such as XML (used by Pandora FMS), JSON, HTML, etc. The command ls in GNU Linux is used to list files and directories. I have grouped the following commands because they start with that prefix, however it does not mean they are the same programmers, and/or that they have a common origin.
lshw
I like this command for its versatility, it even has a graphical interface you can install in a Debian environment with the following execution:
sudo apt install lshw lshw-gtk
Bear in mind that if you are remotely connected by command terminal you will not have access to the graphical interface.
GTK+ front-end for lshw
XML is a technology that dates back to 1998 and that was conceived in a really complex way, so much so that it is one of those that drives Dr. Linus Torvalds crazy (although it does not take much to get him angry). XML needs programs to write and read it, with the advantage that you can easily add new fields to its data structure without any application losing compatibility with reports. In artificial intelligence, you can place all metadata you want, but I have to say it is somewhat difficult for us to work with it directly editing it.
As we did with dmidecode, you can enter a parameter with the kind of hardware you want to inventory, together with the “-xml” parameter. You can also export in JSON format with “-json”.
sudo lshw -xml -class memory
lsscpu
It is part of the linux-util package, an extensive set of commands carefully selected by the team that develops the Linux kernel. It is almost in each and every one of the distributions, it retrieves information from the central processor and can export in JSON format. It gets its data from “/proc”.
lsscpu -json
lspci
Although now motherboards have almost everything integrated, in the world of servers, PCI technology is very present in network cards, etc. lspci in its latest May 2020 version (3.7.0) allows working in *nix, *BSD and even Microsoft Windows environments. Excellent for collecting metrics in key and value pairs. It is rewarded from the community in a database that is updated regardless of the code, so if you have any unrecognized hardware, please report it at http://mj.ucw.cz/sw/pciutils/.
lspci
lsscsi
SCSI, once known as the fastest disk technology, has been dwarfed by each of the new SATA versions. It is still included in hardware for backward compatibility and you can get some information that contributes to your data quality being close to perfection (if all the obtained programs’ values match).
lsscsi –size
lsusb
lsusb, as the name suggests, allows you to list USB devices. Look at the format:
sudo lsusb
If you need to be more specific with each connected device, go through the previous list and enter its identifier (it gets its names from “/var/lib/usbutils/usb.ids”) and, if it has been disabled, lsusb will return a number other than zero.
sudo lsusb –verbose -s
It is part of the Linux USB Project, so it keeps a large number of devices of this very popular peripheral technology up to date.
lsblks
lsblk gets its data from “/sys/dev/block”,it allows exporting in JSON format with “-J” and in key-value pairs in quotation marks with “-P”. It is also part of the util-linux package that I mentioned.
lsblk -d
Incomplete list
Although this list is long, the most important GNU Linux commands are missing: those you will develop at ease and to your liking to monitor with Pandora FMS. Remember to post and share!
Before finishing, remember Pandora FMS is a flexible monitoring software, capable of monitoring devices, infrastructures, applications, services and business processes.
Would you like to find out more about what Pandora FMS can offer you? Find out clicking here .
If you have to monitor more than 100 devices, you can also enjoy a FREE 30-day Pandora FMS Enterprise TRIAL . Get it here .
Do not hesitate to send us your questions. Pandora FMS team will be happy to help you!
“The big challenge is to become all you could possibly be”, Jim Rohn. “The only way to grow is to challenge yourself,” Ashley Tisdale. “The bigger the obstacle, the more glory there is in overcoming it”, Molière… And so we could continue with a long list of inspiring and fighting-spirited people who faced life and came out victorious (probably).
Pandora FMS is the same. Unbreakable and litigant. Pugilist of inconveniences and pole vaulter of “insurmountable” problems. But of course, regarding problems related to IT monitoring. These problems assail us day by day, but we are still here, resisting, clinging to the foremast while the waves hit us, the smell of the bilge rises and the keel pierces against the rocks. No one can stop us.
Today we will ask some of our team members about the challenges of IT monitoring.
Sancho Lerena, CEO of Pandora FMS
What are the biggest challenges that IT monitoring faces or will face?
Hybrid environments no doubt. Before, everything was simpler, you had your devices, but now there aren’t even infrastructures as such. Sometimes they are cloud services, servers hosted elsewhere, your own geographically distributed offices, large clouds in Amazon, Azure and Google, mobile devices… Being able to coordinate all that infrastructure in a single point is not easy. Doing it without resorting to many staff resources is even more difficult.
What are the ways you would face these challenges and what are your possible solutions?
There is a lot of talk about artificial intelligence. I believe that we must talk about increased intelligence, enhancing the work of IT technicians with agile tools that make their task as easy as possible. AI can be applied to certain specific aspects, but the most complex thing is to adapt to the changing reality and for that, tools designed to adapt to changes are needed. Flexible and fast-evolving tools, just like in real life.
Borja Sánchez, Head of the Department of Innovation
What are the biggest challenges that IT monitoring faces or will face?
The volume of devices and technologies to be monitored every day is increasingly higher. Environments with more than a million metrics are not as difficult to find as before, for example. But the biggest problem is not so much retrieving information but displaying said data: How to distinguish relevant data from non-relevant?
What are the ways you would face these challenges and what are your possible solutions?
The correlation of information from different sources allows you to find problems by “mixing” the information that the agents retrieve. So, for example, a slow response on a couple of servers, an incorrect access attempt on another, along with abnormal CPU usage activity, could be pointing to an intrusion attempt. We do this right now with the correlated alert system, although there is still a lot of work left to do.
Ramón Novoa, Head of the AI department
What are the biggest challenges that IT monitoring faces or will face?
The volume of data we generate keeps on growing. It is estimated that by 2025 we will reach 463 exabytes per day, a difficult figure to put into perspective, equivalent to more than 200 million DVDs. And this trend is expected to only increase with the arrival of the Internet of Things (IoT).
What are the ways you would face these challenges and what are your possible solutions?
To be able to process and analyze such amounts of data, you will have to rely more and more on algorithms that help us find patterns and anomalies. That is why Ártica ST (developer of Pandora FMS) invests in technologies such as artificial intelligence, thinking about the future.
Rafa Ameijeiras, Project Manager
What are the biggest challenges that IT monitoring faces or will face?
IT is constantly changing, but in the past few years these changes have been exponential and very radical. Now we have cloud, microservices, orchestrators, serverless, managed services (SaaS), managed platforms (PaaS) and thousands of new technologies that do not behave the same way that environments did a few years ago and that cannot be monitored the same way.
Almost recently most applications were monolithic and the concept of monitoring was finding out whether a machine was “alive” and connected to the network, and that was it. And as additional information, finding out the performance of the machines (CPU, Memory, Disk, network use, process and service status). This was considered full monitoring.
Today those values are still useful, of course, but insufficient. Most of the machines we use are not ours, we hire them as a service. Even many times we can’t even know what machine our applications and services are running on. Applications are no longer monolithic, they are not on a single server, so they can be spread over dozens of servers, or even hundreds of containers or serverless services around the world.
Knowing how these new technologies work and how they switch with the “classic” technology we know, in order to offer high quality monitoring is, in my opinion, the biggest challenge we face.
What are the ways you would face these challenges and what are your possible solutions?
Constant training, keeping up to date with what is happening in IT, knowing which services are the most used today and spending time studying and understanding them in order to integrate them into monitoring.
Although it seems very complex, we also have help. More and more, it comes from software manufacturers and service providers, and even from many hardware manufacturers. They are more aware of the monitoring needs and the paradigm shift, and they put at our disposal different communication mechanisms with their tools to obtain the necessary information on their status and performance.
It is in our hands to take advantage of these resources and get the best performance from them, to be able to correlate the data that are relevant and discard those that are not, in order to be able to represent the status of the monitored applications and services in a reliable way.
What is PuTTY and some useful tips to use it easily
PuTTY is a free program (MIT license) for x86 and AMD 64 architectures (now in experimental stages for ARM). It was developed in 1997!, by Simon Tatham, a British programmer. In this blog, we have been reviewing this useful program for several years, and even the great Pandora FMS team has confirmed it just now in 2020, in the list of network commands for Microsoft Windows® and GNU/Linux®. What if it deserves its own article? Read and judge for yourselves.
Before GNU/Linux®
For those of you who visit us for the first time (welcome all) I will tell you that, when I started hitting the keyboard keys, Mr. Linus Torvalds had not even begun to study at the University of Helsinki, Finland. Age aside, we didn’t even have a graphical environment on our computers, as we know them today. Each program managed the best it could, making calls directly to the hardware, which was expensive and primal and in turn did not allow for more powerful operating systems.
The command line or terminal window was the one we used for almost everything and when operating systems with a graphical interface arrived, this resource was relegated to communicating network computers, given its low cost in terms of data transmission and its powerful use (for example, with a single command you may shut down or restart a computer, and many other things). The surprising thing is that even today we continue to use this work scheme, and even more so in terms of monitoring.
The world of computers today
Since the birth of GNU/Linux® its natural niche has been the server sector, especially web servers. By 2012, Pandora FMS team, with a keen eye, noticed the irruption of Android® in computing and we surely know that today the number of mobile phones with this operating system far exceeds the rest of devices.
Oh, I almost forgot, Android® is a somewhat weird GNU/Linux®, because manufacturers and phone operators do not let us use our “own” computers as root users. Leaving aside the arrival of 5G technology and new mobile operating systems, Android® has no major problems downloading multiple applications, to connect our beloved and precious servers with GNU/Linux (administration, monitoring).
The Windows® platform still retains a powerful slice on desktop systems (mostly for its use in video games). For administration and/or monitoring tasks just getting your hands on a handful of applications is more than enough. Here is where PuTTY, a free tool written in C language, comes into play. I guess here the name PuTTY is the complement of getty (short for get TTY) a program written in Unix by Wietse Zweitze Venema (co-author of the popular Postfix email server) and ported to GNU/Linux. In both worlds, getty has the function of detecting a connection, requesting user credentials, and authenticating them. PuTTY would then be, I guess, an abbreviation for put TTY. Let us also take into account that TTY is the abbreviation of TeleTYpewriter, the first devices based on a typewriter but electrically connected for sending and receiving written messages by telegraph (Télétype® or teletype).
Of course, PuTTY is not the only one – nor will it be the last – that you can use for teletasks: I recognize that Cmder is also a very useful program that includes more options for Windows®: cmd, Powershell® and SSH. But that, ladies and gentlemen, that is another story.
PuTTY main screen
EU-FOSSA 2
European Union Free and Open Source Software Auditing project included PuTTY, in 2019, in the rewards program for hunting software bugs (bug bounty), which I consider shows its importance for computing.
To date, the European Commission has committed € 320,000 in reward payments (up to € 10,000 for revealing a software bug) in this project, and in the case of PuTTY (January to July 2019) they made 34 reports that were rewarded with an average of 285 euros each (I estimate more than twenty thousand euros in total, the highest prize was 6,772.08 euros). With such incentives it is clear that version 0.71 was born specifically by the initiative of all of Europe, considering PuTTY a common good. In this article I talk about the most recent version 0.74, paying my tribute.
Human resources
While money is important, we human beings are even more important, since we bear symbols and we give meaning to this Universe. PuTTY has, apart from Simon Tatham, a small but very select group of developers:
Alexandra Lanes: code reviewer who… responds to development emails. Yes, after the bug bounty program, sponsored by the European Commission, they went back to their previous scheme of receiving all improvements, criticisms, comments, etc., by email. Back to old school!
Jacob Nevins: Helps receiving email, and sometimes also encrypts.
Ben Harris: With high character encoding studies, he helps in the process of porting to other platforms.
In detail, what does PuTTY do for us?
Don’t ask that, ask what you can do with PuTTY. To sum it up a lot, PuTTY turns your powerful computer with a certain number of cores and huge amounts of RAM (with hard disk space and a monitor that would make film director George Lucas turn pale) into… a dumb terminal window. Yes, sometimes little things do titanic jobs, and the other way around!
Do not take the dumb terminal the wrong way, I call it that because everything we write on this side is sent to a Unix or Linux machine (this is usually abbreviated as *nix) and everything sent from there is reflected on our screen.
At a higher level (and I respect that opinion) there are those who think that personal computers have died… If we see it that way, anyone would say let’s move on this is over, but wait, there are still a few things left.
PuTTY special commands for SSH
PuTTY Features
PuTTY, by default, will communicate with you through SSH safely, through certificates (public and private key), although if you want to skip security, you have to explicitly request SSH-1.
PuTTY has its own format (PuTTY Private Key or PPK) to store the public key without encryption on your disk but with the guarantee of Message Authentication Code (MAC – yes, yet another repeated acronym). That means you need an extra step if you already had a certificate made for OpenSSH, which is the current standard. Otherwise, PuTTY has its own certificate generator in several different formats. The author indicates that the difficulty for PuTTY to stop using PPK is the number of tweets they send them: the more messages, the easier it is. Their account on Twitter is… they don’t have an account on that social network (humor is also an indication of intelligence).
If you wish for higher security, you can use a security sentence to your pair of keys when generating them, but then you have to enter that sentence in each connection, each time. PuTTY has Pageant, who stays in memory and does that work for you.
PuTTY can use the connection protocol created by Richard Stallman himself – father of the free software movement – back in 1983: SUPDUP. I in particular did not know about it, so I just learned something new with you… Who uses that protocol currently? You see, geek stuff!
The PuTTY code has been used by third parties as the basis for an experimental SSH server (developing free software is spreading). PuTTY is written in C language and it is monolithic, it does not use dynamic link libraries, so if you download the appropriate version already compiled in 32 or 64 bits, it is ready to be executed.
“PuTTY preferences for serial port”
Some Cisco® brand network switches use a serial port, conveniently disguised as an RJ-45 terminal, through which you can manage and/or monitor these devices (some other commercial brands do the same). I recommend using the serial port of the motherboard (buy an extension cable for the external slot of the case) which guarantees a better connection than USB to 9-pin serial port adapter cables. Once you have all this, PuTTY will kindly connect you to the serial port, usually COM1
In a similar way, you can set a graphical server X on the *xnix machine you will connect to and forward said output through PuTTY to your local machine, in order to use a program like Xming to monitor user experience (in a web browser, for example)./li>
PuTTY preferences X11 forwarding
Tips to save time
When working with PuTTY, these suggestions are very welcomed:
By clicking and dragging directly, it will be copied to the clipboard, without using CTRL + C. If you want to select a rectangular area just press the ALT key before clicking in the session window opened with PuTTY. Remember that clicking with the right button inside the window will paste (CTRL + V) what you have on the clipboard, although you may also use SHIFT + INSERT to paste.
By secondary clicking on the title bar of the window you will have some very interesting options, such as:
Work in full screen. This allows you to work without distractions.
Duplicate the session, that is, another terminal window with the same server (there is also another option to open a totally new connection or choose between the profiles you have saved).
In the configuration option, you can check the option to reuse the connection and then when connecting, right click and choose to duplicate session. From there, all the connections you make will use a single path, even if you use CMD.exe to run other PuTTY executables (psftp,plink, etc.) followed by the profile name you use for the connection and the rest of required parameters.
Depending on the type of connection you have established, PuTTY can offer the most used special commands, for example in SSH you will have SIGKILL, SIGTERM, etc
Remember that PuTTY stores, by default, the last 200 lines that you worked with (regardless of how keyboard shortcuts are handled in the terminal), because with the configuration option you can increase it to 5,000, just as an example. What use is this to us? Well, if for some reason you lose the connection, then right click again on the title bar of the window and select “Restart connection” and you will still keep everything you have written up to 5,000 lines up!
Remember the lock icon on web pages? Based on that same concept, and to avoid malicious SSH servers (ask them to send you questions of some kind about your passwords) PuTTY has an ingenious method of drawing an icon to differentiate – and legitimize – the warnings and questions that PuTTY asks you in the terminal window. However, this defense cannot be done in Windows CMD windows like for Plink (this executable is used to automate connections and you may never use it directly, but I make an exception).
If you use Powerline to give each of your remote machines a professional look (and to differentiate them as well), you can clone the repository and take the fonts and install them in Windows®. Then upload the necessary profile and set the recently installed font to your liking. In any case, PuTTY also allows customizing colors, styles and behaviors when resizing the terminal window and many other things.
PuTTY configured with Powerline font
PuTTY and Pandora FMS
As you can see, PuTTY is actually an additional tool for monitoring as it helps you test and/or debug applications in general because, although SSH is its strength, it has other protocols such as Telnet and even live TCP! How can you contribute to PuTTY? Apart from receiving donations through Paypal, there is something you can do that will make the authors happier: spread and tell others about this software. For example, you can set up your very own mirror site that syncs monthly with the original. If you want to get more committed you can download its source code and help debugging.
Before finishing, remember Pandora FMS is a flexible monitoring software, capable of monitoring devices, infrastructures, applications, services and business processes.
Would you like to find out more about what Pandora FMS can offer you? Find out clicking here .
If you have to monitor more than 100 devices, you can also enjoy a FREE 30-day Pandora FMS Enterprise TRIAL . Get it here .
Do not hesitate to send us your questions. Pandora FMS team will be happy to help you!
What is a hacker? More like Mr. Robot rather than Operation Swordfish
If we lived in a fair and more appealing world, children would not want to be Cristiano Ronaldo or PewDiePie (popular Swedish youtuber that if you have a certain age, or dignity, you won’t know about). Children would like to be someone with values, like Immanuel Kant, She-Ra or, of course, a high-level hacker who, from the sewers of a suburban pavilion, controls the world with his killer laptop and his hoodie.
We get the idea of Immanuel or She-Ra, but why do we keep that idea in our head that hackers are so cool? What is a hacker seen through the eyes of someone who knows what this world is all about? It is not that we have brought to the fore a real hacker to solve it -authorities stay calm-, but we have brought Kevin Rojas, a project consultant at Pandora FMS and a renowned technologist and nerd of these things.
What is actually a hacker?
A hacker is a person who knows a lot about computing (security, networks, programming) and uses his knowledge to detect security flaws in the computer systems of companies or organizations.
What exactly do they do?
There are different types of hackers depending on what they do and how they do it, although it could be simplified into “good hackers” and “bad hackers”. The “good guys” (ethical hackers or “white hats”) are usually hired by companies to help them improve the system security by plugging holes and fixing bugs, and the “bad guys” (“black hats”) take advantage of those holes and mistakes for personal profit. Then there are all sorts of intermediate points, such as “gray hats”, who look for faults in business systems… to attempt to be hired to help them solve them.
Why do you think they are so romanticized by movies?
I guess because of the growing importance of computing and how “appealing” it sounds to be able to break into any kind of security. In the end, a hacker is someone who gets away with anything by being “more resourceful.” Who doesn’t like big hit movies?
In addition, a hacker does not obey to any physical pattern: it does not matter whether a person is tall or short, fat or skinny, it does not matter if that person is extroverted or what his economic level is. Anyone with enough wit (and knowledge) could be a hacker… and it’s no small feat.
What things do they usually do?
A real hacker could spend a lot of time studying (really, a lot). They have to know how things work, how elements interact, what known errors different technologies have, what the most effective security policies are and what the most common errors that users make are (which, by the way, are usually the chain’s weakest link: Have you seen those people who write down the password of their user in a post-it stuck to the screen?).
What they also usually do is a lot of programming. They create malware that takes advantage of system vulnerabilities, or that captures the keystrokes and mouse keys of careless users who install programs from suspicious web pages.
They do a lot of things, but there’s one I guarantee they don’t usually do: program “detailed 3D graphical interfaces with countdowns that light up the screen red while a submarine alarm beeps when the system recognizes a security breach and activates the countermeasures”. They don’t do that, even though you may have seen it in movies like Skyfall.
What do you think are the biggest differences between a real hacker and a cliché movie hacker?
Movie hackers often hacking into systems “just like that”. “Give me any computer with Internet access and in 10 minutes I’ll be connected to the Ministry of Defense network.” Well no, it is way more complex than that and it takes much more work behind. It’s more like Mr. Robot rather than Operation Swordfish. Not that much glamour and a lot of black screen with Linux terminals.
Could you name a real hacker who has gone down in computer history for his misdeeds? What did he do?
We do not have to go that far: Swedish Julian Assange, for example, went down in history in 2010 (and on the lists of most wanted people in the United States) for leaking documents from the American intelligence service regarding several incidents that took place in the war against Afghanistan.
Also the group Anonymous is currently quite a hot topic, which is not a single person but a large group of hackers, who have been leaking information since 2003 and from which the aforementioned series, Mr. Robot was inspired.
But not all famous hackers are bad guys: there are also famous ethical hackers like Chema Alonso, Telefónica’s current CDCO, one of the heads involved in managing of the 2017 Wannacry crisis, which, in case you don’t remember, was caused by a program that encrypted the code and data of infected computers, and asked for money to recover them. We need hackers to deal with hackers…
Before diving into what WSL2 is, how to install it, and how to use it – which we will – I would like to add some background information you might relate to if you were born in the 80s like me.
From a very young age I have felt attracted to computers, and in my childhood they were not as common as they are today, when almost everyone has one within reach.
I think my first encounter with a computer was when I was 11 or 12 years old, with an old computer that my father had in his office. I remember spending hours in front of the screen, although I’m not quite sure what I was doing, because at that time there was no internet.
That old computer had Windows 3.1; my first computer also meant my first Operating System was Windows, which I used in all its versions (and I will also spoil that I still use it). From then on I kept on using it, in fact, I didn’t know about anything else until I got to college and some friends told me about Linux (Mac was not an alternative for me).
Since I met Linux I fell in love with the penguin operating system, its philosophy and its fantastic terminal, so I started testing it on my home computer, with all the compatibility issues it involved at the time, when you spent half a day installing and two more looking for drivers. However it was a new experience and, although frustrating, totally rewarding when you achieved this sense of accomplishment. Of course, for me it was no more than an experiment for many years.
Half of my professional life revolved around Windows, from my first jobs as a microcomputer technician to managing servers and services based on Microsoft OS. I even studied at a Microsoft partner academy and got certified in Microsoft Windows Server 2012. It wasn’t until early 2013 that I had my first professional experience with Linux on an old web server that someone had to maintain. Indeed, that someone was me and I devoted many more hours than necessary to that lonely server.
Like many of you, I find myself in the following position: I love Linux and its ecosystem but it seems to me that Microsoft does a very good job on its OS and, for some reason, I always end up coming back to it. The ideal thing would be to have the best of both worlds. I’ve tried dual boot, virtualization, and cwin, but none felt like a full experience. I thought it was the best I could get even if it wasn’t ideal and just moved on, until Microsoft announced WSL.
What is WSL?
WSL stands for Windows Subsystem for Linux, which was nothing more than a compatibility layer for native Linux environments within Windows. Its first version was announced in 2016 and it was big news. I remember having the Ubuntu 16.04 terminal running natively on Windows and thinking “this is what I’ve been waiting for, everything I need without losing compatibility”.
Unfortunately WSL, although very useful, had several shortcomings: all the executions were interpreted, there was no access to all the hardware of the machine, the overall performance was quite poor, etc. I didn’t stop using it, but it wasn’t suitable for everyone. Still, it was the first step. In 2019 they announced WSL2, which would no longer be interpreted, it would have the entire native Linux kernel and would be running on Windows at full performance. WSL2 was recently released for all Windows 10 2004 version users. It seems that having everything I needed is now becoming a reality. It’s not perfect, that’s for sure, but it’s impressive how well it works.
Why WSL2 and not a Linux distro?
“It depends”, that’s the answer. Many of you, due to company policies, will not be able to change the OS of your computer or will be stuck with Windows for using the Office suite or Adobe tools, or even because you feel more comfortable on Windows rather than Linux.
In my case, I have the freedom to choose the operating system I use, my company does not enforce any restrictions as long as it stays updated and has an antivirus active. I have tried using Linux straight away and in the end I always have to go back to Windows or virtualize it and I prefer to virtualize Linux on Windows rather than the other way around.
In my day to day I have many different tasks, although I have a WSL2 terminal always open on one of my virtual desktops, I spend half of the day in meetings with different providers (webex on Linux is a nightmare). I use different VPNs and virtual client desktops, I edit videos for Pandora FMS YouTube channel, etc. And I do many of these things with tools that do not work quite well in Linux, so WSL2 has given me the almost perfect solution for my daily tasks.
(If you think you would be interested in reading an article about my workflow and all the tools I use, leave a message in the comment box).
Deploy WSL2
If you are here, it is because you relate to one of the cases here exposed. Installing WSL2 is very simple, but let’s go step by step.
Remember that you must have Windows 10 version 2004 or higher to be able to use WSL2.
Checking it is as simple as pressing the start key, typing winver and pressing enter.
It will show you a screen like this, where you will see Windows 10 version.
If you comply with the correct Windows version, let’s get to work. If not, it is time to go update Windows.
Step 1: Enable WSL on your system.
The easiest way is to open a PowerShell terminal as administrator and run:
Open a PowerShell terminal again as administrator and execute:
wsl --set-default-version 2
You will see a message similar to: “WSL 2 requires an update to its kernel component. For information, please visit https://aka.ms/wsl2kernel”. Go to the URL and download the package following the wizard steps.
Step 4: Download the distro, preferably from Windows store. Type in wsl in the search engine so that the options come out (personally I use Arch, but it is not in the store so it is a bit more complicated to install). I recommend installing Ubuntu, the first to be released and in my opinion the one with the most covering support.
Once downloaded, open it and the distro installation will start. It will ask for the username and password. For the Linux system you can set the one you prefer, it has nothing to do with the Windows user.
Once the installation is finished, you will see a screen similar to the following and the prompt ready to use Ubuntu bash.
Step 5: Check the installation from a PowerShell terminal, executing:
wsl --list --verbose
Where it will list the distros installed and their versions. I already said that it used arch and yes I also have Windows running in WSL2 for Docker. In your case, it will show just the one that you have installed, in this case Ubuntu, and it would have to be version 2.
Conclusions
With these simple steps you will have Ubuntu installed within Windows with its kernel at 100% and you can run all the tools you need, such as Docker natively directly in the Linux kernel (something that before with HyperV was not working for me and that WSL1 did not support).
Implementation is not perfect, it has many advantages but it also has some problems to figure out. Even so, I think it is the best current implementation to have a hybrid system where to enjoy the best of both worlds, so I recommend it 100%.
If you are interested in the subject, we can write an article listing the advantages, disadvantages and alternative solutions to certain problems that this technology currently poses. Let me know if you are interested in the comments.
At Pandora FMS, we know that even the most minor of network issues can quickly throw a wrench in your company’s daily operations. One of the most common network issues many experience is known as packet loss.
Here, our team of network monitoring experts goes into detail about what packet loss is, as well as how to measure it and resolve it when necessary, so read on!
In the simplest terms, packet loss is when one or more “packets” fail to meet their destination. In most cases, it can be a minor issue that crops up in the background of your network from time to time. In fact, many applications are designed to manage package loss by relying on the built-in retransmission solutions available from transmission control protocols or by having a monitored acceptable level of packet loss.
Is there Acceptable Packet Loss?
As mentioned previously, packet loss can often be a minor issue, but that doesn’t mean it should go unaddressed. In terms of network monitoring, there is an acceptable level of packet loss (around %1 or so) that can happen and your operations will remain unaffected. This is because things like SIP or VoIP systems are designed to tolerate a small amount.
How is Packet Loss Caused?
One of the most common causes of packet loss is having links close to maximum throughput that start dropping packets, in other words, congestion. However, there are other causes as well, like general radio-based issues, faulty hardware and in some cases, a device will purposefully drop packets for routing purposes or to limit traffic throughput.
What are the Effects of Packet Loss?
Minimal packet loss isn’t likely to affect your network too much. However, extensive packet loss will greatly reduce the speed of any throughput connection, reducing the quality of applications like streaming video and voice-over IP services, as well as other latency-sensitive protocols. Since packet loss can increase the CPU load needed to process additional network overhead there may be some delays and issues.
How Do I Check for Packet Loss?
You can determine whether your network is experiencing packet loss by first performing a ping to identify the issue; you’ll then be able to determine the percentage of packet loss your network is experiencing. Often, there’s no single cause for packet loss, meaning you’ll need to monitor your system’s different processes, like port errors and congestion, to check it for packet loss symptoms.
Testing: To test for packet loss inside your network, you can provide extra capacity for links that are receiving more than 90% congestion. Additionally, check your router and CPU’s resources to ensure it’s not an issue with those components within your system. For issues occurring outside of your network, it can often be due to your ISP or another ISP between your path and your destination. In this case, you’ll need to provide your ISP provider with detailed information via a ping/MPR output to resolve the issue.
Reducing Packet Loss
One of the best ways to reduce packet loss is to employ network monitoring software that will monitor capacity and hardware failures throughout your network, alerting you as soon as an issue is perceived. Providing proper network maintenance is another good way to avoid packet loss issues and keep your system running at peak performance levels.
Our Network Monitoring Solutions
As one of today’s leading network and server monitoring companies, Pandora FMS ensures your network is functioning properly.
Remote Network Monitoring: Pandora FMS delivers remote network monitoring without external access via our cutting-edge satellite servers.
Our basic network monitoring features include:
Advanced Availability Reports
Remote Software & License Inventory
Polling SNMP v3 & Complete SNMP Trap Management
NetFlow for Network Capacity Management & Low-Level Performance
Integrated MIB Explorer, with Custom MIB Loading
Auto-Discovery of Networks at Levels 2 & 3
Integrated SSH & Telnet Console
Historical Graphs for Up to 3Years Back
High Availability
Integrated IPAM for IP Addressing Management (IPv4/IPv6)
Linux & Windows Monitoring
& More!
We’re Experts in Complex Networks & Environments
When it comes to working with complicated networks and environments, the team from Pandora FMS are proven experts. Since 2004, we’ve helped clients overcome complex network issues by offering a comprehensive tool and obtaining key insight into their systems.
Our monitoring software is designed to offer users high scalability, adapting as the needs of your business grow. Thanks to our satellite servers and Metaconsole, we enable horizontal growth that is designed to handle thousands of network queries and duties per second. In some cases, our clients operate thousands of network devices and our monitoring solutions help them manage any issue that’s thrown at them.
Contact Pandora FMS for comprehensive monitoring solutions and technology!
If you want to get a handle on your company’s daily operations and improve and secure your network, the team from Pandora FMS would love to tell you more about our offerings. In addition to our network and server monitoring solutions, we offer SAP monitoring capabilities, log collection, and many more services designed to improve your capabilities.
Pandora FMS is committed to helping companies implement horizontal and integrated monitoring, combining key insight from different departments and sources to provide companies with a single dashboard to supervise their technology. We work with clients located in more than 40 countries around the world and have experience working with businesses in any industry, of any size.
We also offer support and training services to ensure a seamless implementation at every level of your business. To learn more about how we can help you improve efficiency and gain greater control of your network, contact us online.
